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Wine Description
The Story
The work in the vineyard at Rauzan-Ségla is carried out plot by plot, plant by plant. The harvest is performed with the same painstaking care as the other tasks throughout the year. Each step is approached with the same attention to detail, from the picking to the production of the new wine.
Each vintage must be considered unique and be treated as such, demanding a renewed attention and making any attempt at an annual routine quite impossible. At Rauzan Ségla, nothing is left to chance, adapting to each year’s weather conditions and bringing out the best characteristics of the vintage. Not a day goes by without the technical team roaming up and down the rows of vines, tasting the grapes and judging their readiness. It is their expert palates that will dictate the harvest dates for each plot. This decision is primordial and carries with it the very style of the property. Precision and delicatesse are required if we are to pick grapes that are both ripe and fresh-tasting. When the signal is finally given the grapes are picked by hand with the greatest care. After a first selection by the picker, the bunches are placed in small six-kilo individual crates to avoid any crushing. They are then transported to the cellar to be sorted.
Vintage 1996
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%. %.