Perrier-Jouët Champagne Brut 1996

Thirty years ago the Champagne region was blessed with one of the greatest vintages of the last half century. The season carried a lot of promise, and when the wines were eventually released they lived up to expectations. Unable to resist, I stocked up. Yes, I confess, I used to buy and drink a serious volume of Champagne.

Three decades later, the once unassailable reputation of the 1996 vintage has wobbled somewhat, as not every wine performed as expected in the cellar. Nevertheless the vintage remains one of the region’s most highly regarded. and working my way through my bottles has offered no hardship. Now, however, that time is coming to an end, as my stock of 1996 Champagne has dwindled down to the point where (provided my cellar records are correct – no guarantees there) just one bottle remains.

It seems fitting to me that this final bottle takes its place in my Weekend Wine slot, so here goes with the 1996 Brut Champagne from Perrier-Jouët.

So, before I pop the cork, what was so special about the 1996 vintage?

What set this vintage apart in Champagne was the balance of sugar and acidity in the fruit at harvest. In the final stages of the season northerly winds contributed to a greater degree of dehydration than expected, yet the nights during September were cool, which helped to preserve the acidity levels in the grapes.

The result was an almost unique harvest of wines rich in sugar and thus potential alcohol (many picked fruit with more than 10º potential – more than enough for Champagne where anything over about 8.5º passes muster) but also rich in acidity, in this case an almost unheard of 10 g/l. Fully ripe wines, with great acidity? These are the basic building blocks for a great vintage, producing sparkling wines of richness and freshness combined.

With time, however, the vintage’s reputation was tarnished, even if only slightly. Some wines developed oxidative notes a little more quickly than expected, and some developed a disjointed character, the acidity never quite integrating with the rest of the wine. Happily, none of these caveats seemed to show through in the wines with which I stocked my cellar. I returned to the vintage many times, and often wrote them up on the old, pre-2019 facelift version of Winedoctor (notes now lost to the internet, although they still reside on a dark recess of my hard drive).

I ended up with two 1996s from Perrier-Jouët in my cellar, the 1996 Belle Epoque and the 1996 Brut. I seem to have drunk all the Belle Epoque some years ago (how did that happen – perhaps because I only had a small handful of bottles?), leaving me with the 1996 Brut.

Perrier-Jouët can trace its history back to 1811, when it was founded by Pierre Nicolas-Marie Perrier, the uncle of Joseph Perrier, and Jouët was his wife’s maiden name. While they created a successful business, it was their son Charles Perrier who expanded it, developing an international market for his wines. By 1996, however, the business was one small slice of the Seagram portfolio, and it remains in the hands of big business today, having since been acquired by Pernod Ricard. Back in 1996 the wines were made by cellar master Hervé Deschamps, who assumed this position in 1993.

Releasing the cork from the 1996 Champagne Brut from Perrier-Jouët produces only a barely perceptible sigh, the pressure behind very gentle. In the glass it displays a remarkably rich honey-gold hue, with a bead that can only be described as ethereal, formed of rare, solitary bubbles.
The nose is gorgeously evolved, with richly dried fruit, and while there is some oxidative development here, with touches of roasted Brazil nut and rich brioche, it seems entirely appropriate for the wine’s age. Alongside I find complex notes of yeast extract, liquorice, black bean and black tea leaves. Sweet and charming on the palate, this is nicely evolved, velvety and dense, with a core of toasted fruits, roasted and salted nuts, streaks of salted liquorice and a fine thread of acidity which harks back to the freshness of the fruit as it was picked from the vine. It finishes long, with traces of bitter fruits and a tingling pétillance. A deliciously mature Champagne, and a fine swan song for this vintage. Drink now. The alcohol is 12.5% on the label. 96/100 (19/10/26)

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