to borrow Ray’s scale, near staggering. On the Zanotti binary scale, a 1, worth drinking. Blows away 04 and 06, makes me want 08. Painfully intense in a very good way, bright fresh and dense fruit all lifted by the acid backbone. Very creamy, fine mousse, long future. Love it.
Sounds stunning. Very well done. How does it compare to the 02?
opened a 1999 Comtes Rose recently was amazing. I have a hard time accepting the price jump for 2008. Help me justify it.
Thanks Doc. I think I have 2 more of these someplace.
I have just one, saved for my 25th anniversary next year. Thanks for the note.
Warren
have recently had 00, 04, and 06, no 02.
Love this wine. Always trumps the also excellent 95 for me.
Agreed, superb. Drank one a week ago and it still has a lot in reserve.
I had the 02 a couple weeks ago and loved it. Much older than that and Champagne usually loses its appeal for me unless it is still youthful and full of energy.
Great stuff Alan.
Haven’t had it in a while but the '95 is awesome as well.
Couple times, I have preferred 1995 to 1996.
I’ve consistently preferred the 1995 but I wouldn’t put it past the 1996 to eventually surpass it. But since I opened my last one 2+ years ago I’ll never know.
Happy to hear it is still showing so well and you got to enjoy it. I loved the 95 much more for years and then the 96 caught up and took it to another level and evidently is still hanging in nicely. I long for these kind of experiences and after 3 dismal 96` Krug and 2 bad La Grande Dame lately, I’ve been very pessimistic about others from that vintage.
Blake,
You will be fine with Blanc de Blancs or Chardonnay heavy wines from 1996. The worries and variability are with those that involve a good helping of Pinot grapes.
Thanks Brad. You’ve mentioned this previously and I now remember that to be the case. I’m going to test a couple soon.
How is the 1995 doing these days? I had a mad passion for that one at release and drank through most of my stash within 10 years of release. I have 2 bottles and 2 magnums left that I have been trying to conserve until they were fully developed. Time to dig in?
I’m curious to know as well Tom. I drank all of mine, but know of a few who still have some and will encourage them to open up a bottle for a look see.
The '95 is still drinking extremely well.
As far as '95 vs '96, In the past I have preferred the '95 much more than the '96, but drinking both side by side over the past few years, the gap has narrowed significantly.
Good to hear- thank you. If we can ever get past all this COVID stuff, maybe in the spring we can have one of my remaining magnums when I can come up there. It feels so sad going into the fall auction season knowing there will be no dinners.