Fifteen Years On: The 1996 Vintage
Here in part two of my report on the 1996 vintage, tasted at fifteen years of age, I focus on the red wines, having covered the sparkling and white wines (as it happens, exclusively from the Loire and Champagne) in part one.
The red wines take us somewhat further afield, as although I take up the story where I left off, so to speak, with a single (admittedly rather disappointing) wine from the Loire, here we move onto other regions of France, including most obviously Bordeaux but also some beyond my usual stomping grounds, including Burgundy, the Rhône Valley, the Languedoc, as well as Italy, Portugal, Lebanon and Australia.
The strongest showing here undoubtedly concerns Bordeaux, where I naturally focus on the left bank communes and Pessac-Léognan, many of these wines to my palate just now starting to open up with a good period of decanting, in the case of the wines tasted here at least two hours in every case. If I were to pick one out that really excelled it would have to be Haut-Bailly, which is really pleasing as I’ve just added a few more bottles to the cellar, although Poujeaux (pictured) is certainly worthy of a mention; it’s not unknown for this estate to over-perform and put a few classed growth names to shame, and the 1996 vintage is yet another case in point.
From beyond Bordeaux, there were many decent or very good wines, although only the 1996 La Chapelle from Jaboulet – bought back in the days when these wines were not only more affordable than they are now, but before quality nose-dived and the Jaboulet family sold the business – really excited me. It certainly showed in a very superior fashion to the 1996 Monier de la Sizeranne from Chapoutier, which perhaps says something of the value of working with your own vineyards, as opposed to négoce fruit. Two wines from the Languedoc illustrated that it is not always the famous names that perform the best, as a consistent performance from Domaine de Baruel put the wine from Mas de Daumas Gassac to shame, although I did wonder about the typicity of the latter wine and have left a question mark hanging over my opinion.
