Salon 1996, Bordeaux 1996 and the evening’s winners

We started with an excellent Salon 1996. Still tight but extremely promising. Far less evolved than my last bottle.

Olivier Blanc 1945 served blind.
A few feet over the hill. Color was a gorgeous burnished bronze. Guesses were good, white Bordeaux with serious bottle age. Still showed toasted almonds but also more than a hint of Sherry. Probably at its best last week, and we missed the boat. [berserker.gif] An interesting curiosity, and the oldest dry white anybody had tasted.

1996 Left Bank
Pichon Lalande. Not one of my favorite vintages for Pichon, although it has an excellent reputation. Quite ripe, nicely balanced but I missed that slight green edginess that for me is the hallmark of the estate. Extremely good though and preferred by at least one taster over the

1996 Leoville Las Cases
This is probably my favorite vintage of Las Cases. A brilliant wine with that nervosity that gives a wine its freshness and also length and depth. Still needs time but evolving beautifully.

1996 Lanessan tasted at home a couple of days later. A great showing not far off the other two, but a lot more mature. Easy to like, with plenty of fruit and spices and a medium long finish.

And on a night of plenty the three winning wines.

Pichon Lalande 1983
A perfect mature claret. This was all about gentle complexity.Fully mature but with plenty of life, a touch of herb, bright red fruit, licorice and cedar. A delight. So much so, I bought a half case.

Vieux Chateau Certan 1998
Tasted blind, a show stopper, which we all messed up trying to identify it. The 1998 Right Banks are strange beasts, being both delicious, perfectly ripe, but at same time some of the most precise and delineated wines I have tasted out of Bordeaux. It was close but my wine of the night.

Philip Togni 1995
After Ridge, Togni is my largest holding of California Cabernets. While it is decidedly California in style, it stops well short of any extreme, and ages effortlessly ad takes on an intense floral quality and a fresh Christmas pudding quality, which is probably a contradiction in terms. Of all the wines there, this evolved most in the glass, getting better and better with air. Next bottle will get a three hour decant. Delicious and in a night of greatness, my third best by a hair.

4 Likes

Great notes Mark! 98 VCC is a killer bottle for sure. I’ve always enjoyed 96 PLL but sounds like I need to get my hands on an 83!

Terrific notes. Thanks for sharing Mark. Absolutely love the hint of green from Pichon Lalandes that you mentioned.

What vintage was the Togni?

Fixed thanks 1995

I was the person who preferred the '96 Pichon Lalande to the LLC, but otherwise my take was very close to Mark’s (I did really like the '96 LLC, and am not usually a big LLC fan. The 2 PLs, the Togmi, and the VCC were all contenders for red of the night for me. Some great whites too- 13 PYCM En Remilly and 14 Boulay Comtesse were both great.
The Salon was too young, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying every drop.

Some great wines there, thanks for the notes. I’ll quibble with 96 Salon being promising (it’s delivering now and as been for years IMO). I’ve always been a huge fan of 83 Pichon LaLande (partly for emotional reasons relating to the first few bottles I drank when moving to London). And I love the 96 Las Cases, and would love to taste it next to the 85 which I think of as my favorite. Overall sounds like a very great night.

Some nice wines there. The 96 LLC is almost my favorite vintage from this chateau, though I’ve not had the 85.

The 95 and 96 PLL have always been a bit of an enigma. I thought both showed great promise early on, but I’ve been a little underwhelmed since. I decided to chalk it up to needing more cellar time as I like my claret long in the tooth. When do you guys think the 96 PLL will reach something like full maturity?

Pat, agree on both PLL’s. Although my case of 96 has had some nice bottles, particularly with lots of air time.