1996

Burgundy 1996 Vintage Report:

:by DRC: Burgundy exults in the sun, tempered by a subtle autumnal mist. These ideal conditions, which have been present in our region since the beginning of September and continued throughout the harvest, today transform the hills into a magical picture, where all the shades of gold, red and green dance in the cool October air. In the streets of the village, as far away as in the vineyards, more than ever, we ...

1996 presents itself as a “classic” Bordeaux year, although – as Jancis Robinson MW wrote – not in the “lean” sense; Although Farr Vintners director Tom Hudson told the drinks industry it may have been a "very good" rather than "really great" year as it was not uniformly excellent across the region .

As a reminder, 1996 was a particularly promising vintage for Médoc wines. The Berry Bros & Rudd website boasts: “This is one of the great post-war vintages for Médoc Cabernet wines. These are rich, complex and beautifully balanced wines, full of ripe, pure fruit and with the structure that will allow the best wines to age over the next decade and beyond.

The Right Bank, on the other hand, is described as “distinguished” but “overshadowed” by the 95s – which was a particularly good vintage for Saint Emilion and Pomerol.

It was also an excellent vintage for white Bordeaux.

Robert Parker's scores tend to favor the Left Bank, although some of the best Right Bank wines have also received very respectable reviews.

Only two wines received 100 points: Lafite and Latour, Margaux was ranked 99, Léoville Las Cases 98, Ducru Beaucaillou 96 and Pichon-Comtesse 96.

La Mondotte was the highest rated right bank wine with 97 points, Ausone was the second highest rated with 93, as was L'Eglise Clinet, while Gomerie, Petrus and Le Pin settled for 92 and Cheval Blanc 90 .

With almost 20 years, the wines have naturally appreciated and now that they are well within their drinking window, demand will almost certainly start to push prices even higher for the most in demand among them.

The figures are often impressive, to date Lafite has seen an increase of 657.9% since its release, its second wine Carruades is up 592%, Latour is up 437%, Petrus is up 400% and Pichon Baron is up 240%. %.

1996 VINTAGE in Burgundy

Maturity levels were in general high following a long hot summer. The wines from the famous Pinot Noir have an intense ruby red colour with lush red fruit aromas. They are wines that are comparable with the outstanding 88s and 89s. The whites are just as outstanding full-bodied with elegant vibrant Chardonnay fruit and sweet white flower and grilled nut aromas. These are wines that have the potential to age magnificently.

Each harvest we hope for three things, favorable weather conditions, healthy grape clusters and high sugar levels. The 1996 harvest provided all of these. April was particularly sunny and brought about an early bud burst (18th of April). Following this we had what can be described as a flash flowering which leads to good pollination, creating high yields.

Arean had low rainfall levels, a sturdy breeze (which kept rot to a minimum) and a long ripening period. These factors created high sugar levels and good acidity within the grapes. Cloud cover in August, combined with the coldest September on record meant that the sugar levels were exceptionally high and so was the acidity: 12% potential alcohol with 5.5g of acidity for Corton Reds and 13%-14% potential alcohol with 6g of acidity for Corton Charlemagne. 

As a result, most are very pleased with the 1996 vintage. The reds have an intense color, good tannin structure and concentrated Pinot Noir flavor. The white wines are also impressive, containing plenty of rich fruit character, a crisp acidity and are already showing an attractive bouquet. 

Up to this point 1996 has been considered a fantastic vintage which produced classic wines; the best since 1990. A long, dry summer produced grapes of record ripeness with record acidity. Some, including myself, question how the 1996s are aging. The wines are generally characterized by a distinctive rather lemony acidity and very good attack, but some wines now seem terribly austere, while others already seem dangerously short of fruit. None of the subsequent vintages are quite as distinctive as 1996, which in the more successful cases should almost certainly be drunk after the 1999s.

Napa Valley 1996 / An unseasonably warm winter with substantial rainfall launched the 1996 growing season with an early bud break. A cool spring was followed by intermittent rain during the May bloom period, causing shatter in many vineyards and reducing the potential crop size. A relatively warm summer with several heat spells speeded veraison and ripening, while a cooling trend in September allowed grape flavors to catch up with sugars, bringing the fruit into excellent balance. Smaller clusters and a light crop resulted in deeply flavored grapes, with the overall harvest down by 20-30%.

Italy Vintage Report by Tb: 1996 was an excellent continuation of the preceding year. Temperatures exceeding 30°C at the beginning of June accelerated and balanced the start of the blooming period. The summer growing season enjoyed ideal conditions, in which the grapes were allowed to ripen slowly and evenly. The autumn rains did not present any mould problems due to the cool temperatures. Nebbiolo grapes were thick-skinned, very concentrated and ripe. The 1996 Barolos and Barbarescos are abundantly fruity, supple and robust wines, whose quality is on a par with the 1990 vintage. In Tuscany Chianti and Montalcino enjoyed extraordinary success. Montepulciano did not do quite as well, but producers in Tuscany considered 1996 to be nearly every bit as good as it was in 1995. Starting with this vintage Angelo Gaja classified his legendary single-vineyard Barbarescos and Barolos as IGTs. Gaja said that the reason for doing this was his desire to differentiate his previous modern single-vintage wines from his family’s pride, the traditional Barbaresco, whose importance he wanted to emphasise as his only DOCG wine. The venerable Chianti producer, Castello di Ama decided that from 1996 on it would focus on the production of Chianti Classico, placing less emphasis on its single-vineyard wines, the Bellavista and La Casuccia.

The wines are still maturing very nicely, even if the Chiantis should, in my opinion, be enjoyed soon due to their sheer deliciousness.

Ups and downs in Bordeaux 1996:

Large percentages obviously attract attention, but there are some that are not as big as they could be and others that are, or at least appear to be, larger than they should be .

Pavie, Margaux, Léoville Las Cases and Eglise Clinet particularly stand out.

Pavie stands out because, by most reasoned accounts, he shouldn't have done so well, especially after receiving just 84-86 points from Parker - hardly a sparkling score.

The fact that it has appreciated in recent times is almost exclusively due to Pavia's wider success in the secondary market in recent years - particularly following its elevation to 'A' status in 2012.

As Martin Buchanan, head of private clients at Armit, told db this was a wine “traded on current reputation, not original”.

In total it's up 444% since release, releasing at £235 p/c (back in 1997) and now available for £1,280. However, looking at Liv-ex, we can see that it is only in the last five years that the '96 Pavie has really taken off, increasing by 63% and outperforming the other three listed wines in terms of performance, although that it has decreased by 3% over the last 12 months.

What's more puzzling is that three wines with much better scores didn't go as far as they could have.

First let's look at Margaux, a 99 point, which has gone up in price by 168% to £1,200. Not a particularly poor record but a little low compared to its vintage 4, which, by virtue of getting 300 points, is already £2000 more expensive per case.

Then on to Léoville Las Cases, one of the best scorers of the vintage with 98 points, who achieved a 100% increase from £900 to £1,808 p/c. Again, not terrible, but how can a second, almost 20 year old wine with 98 points remain so...affordable? Its 2000 vintage also has 98 points and costs £2,050 p/c.

Then again, LLC tends to be "one of those" Bordeaux estates that, no matter how highly rated, never seems to grab buyers to the point where its prices make headlines.

Léoville Barton is another example from this vintage. Rated 92 by Parker – as good as Le Pin or Petrus – it rose just 89% from £395 to £750 p/c.

Buchanan suggests that there is less "vogue" for Médoc properties beyond the first growths, while Hudson adds that LLC was supposed to be the "wine of the vintage" and suffered from not getting the 100 points that many thought.

Finally, Eglise Clinet, one of the best Right Bank wines of the year and rated 93 by Parker, it only increased by 22%, from £900 to £1,100 for example.

It is down 27% over the past five years and is outshone by lowly Pavia. Certainly, she and Margaux have been doing better for six months.

Parallels

Leaving aside the notion of "what all this means" (probably nothing), it's worth remembering that 1996 was, arguably, the 2010s of its time.

The early 1996s were extremely expensive for the time. £950 for a case of Lafite seems almost ridiculously cheap now, but the 1995 came out about £200 cheaper and the 1990 came out at £400 a case.

The three underperforming wines in question were among the most expensive releases of the 96s. Eglise Clinet cost £900 a case on release, LLC £900 (50% more than Haut-Brion at £600) and Margaux was the most expensive premier cru that year at £1,200 a case – only Petrus and Le Pin were more expensive overall.

While in the long run this hasn't hurt their appreciation, wines that start out expensive can take a while to break down and even then they may not go anywhere even with a good rating - châteaux and investors are taking note.

This is probably where Margaux got hamstrung, with Lafite (£100) and Latour (£950 1) at 050 points, both cheaper and creating an 'obvious' situation for buyers and investors because, don't Let's not forget, it was actually in 1995 and 1996 that the investment game began to take off.

Second, 1996 was launched into a wine market on the verge of collapse – and was probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

Much like the 2010s, the 1996s were an attempt to capitalize on a booming Asian market, although in their case it was Japan not China and just as they came out, the market collapsed – although the lull was not as long as the four years that the fine wine market seemed to emerge.

Rioja/ Spain by Riscal: A selection of varieties have been used in the production of this wine in which Tempranillo predominates with a percentage of 54% compared to other varieties. An analysis of this wine indicates a good balance between the alcohol degree of 13Љ and the acidity of 3.3 with a pH of 3.67. The Barn de Chirel wine appeared in 1986 as the outcome of an experimental production using a selection of grapes from very old vines, of more than 30 years, with a very low yield and high quality. The results of this trial led to the birth of the first of what could be called new age Rioja wines. A wine of very limited production, that embodies the characteristics of the vineyard, the soil and the variety in overall harmony. Since the 1995 vintage, Riscal manually selects the grapes for this great wine with the installation of selection or “trie” tables. Riscal was the first winery in Spain to introduce this system. With BarЧn de Chirel, Riscal sets a landmark in the production of quality wines. Highly successful on the national and international markets, this wine is ideal as an accompaniment to red and white meats, roasts, big and small game, stews, lamb, pork, beef, cured and blue cheeses. The 96 vintage is classified as “Very good” and had extremely dry weather, with sharp contrasts, ideal for the ripening of the grape colour. The colour is an intense garnet with a cherry rim. Intense aromas of toast, caramel and vanilla on the nose. In the mouth it is full, tannic, with a delicate hint of oak.