Community Tasting Notes 14

• Tikkanen Likes this wine: 95 points

  May 13, 2023 - Typical 1996. Good fruit and acid. Fantastic.Not much oxidization, perhaps because it's a magnum?
  The wine looks yellow gold colored. It smells like lemon, orange, passion fruit, papaya, mineral, toast, bready, baker's yeast and apple. The body is medium/full. The wine has juicy texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has high acidity.

  Comment

• AudunG wrote: 92 points

  August 6, 2016 - Developed and delicate aromas with green apples, ripe lemon and lime, in addition to som autolysis and developed wood aromas. Elegant, focused and persistent on the palate. Typically for 1996 the acidity is excellent.

  2 people found this helpful Comment

• wineordeath Likes this wine: 91 points

  April 5, 2015 - this wine still has lovely rich flavours, but has begun to lose its mousse and has lost some freshness and fruit to a touch of oxidation. Still very enjoyable, but fully mature to slightly past its peak. Drink up!

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• forceberry wrote: 94 points

  July 6, 2014 - I guess this wine is the same wine that's "Cuvée Royal Millésimé" nowadays - this wine just lacks the Royal name, the label offers very little information beyond "Pommery Grand Cru 1996".
  
  Moderately deep lemony yellow color. Attractively developed and very complex nose with aromas of roasted nuts, chopped almonds, some chalky minerality, light mushroomy character, a little bit of butterscotch, a hint of sweet tropical fruits and a touch of toasted bread with a good chunk of butter on it. Overall the nose isn't that powerful, but boy, does it show stunning depth and richness. The wine is dry, developed and remarkably honeyed on the palate with lovely combination of crisp character and aged richness. Beyond honey, there are flavors of roasted nut autolysis, orange marmalade, some toasted bread, a little bit of baked apple and a hint of lemon marmalade. The wine is very mature with great balance between the richness, very slightly boosted by a touch of dosage, and quite high acidity. The mousse is very fine and rather sparse with lightly tingling prickle. The finish is crisp, drier than the midpalate and less about the developed flavors. There are persistent, layered notes of dried herbs, high-toned steely minerality, very ripe citrus fruits and baked apple, some nuttiness and a hint of yeasty French bread in the aftertaste.
  
  Pommery isn't a producer that often conjures images of interesting top-quality bubblies. That's why this particular wine took me by such surprise: this is a classic example of 1996 Champ in a most wonderful phase right now. The wine has put its primary phase behind and moved on to a lovely, mature phase, but the wine still isn't all about tertiary flavors; there's still quite a bit of life left to the wine. The nose might feel much more developed than the wine actually is, so there is some very obvious life to the midpalate and to the aftertaste, so it's easy to guess this wine still hasn't reached its plateau of maturity - although it's getting very close. I can imagine the wine will keep on developing for some years more and stay good for a decade or so. A real stunner, stupendous value at approx. 55-60€.

  Comment

• BillyT wrote: 90 points

  September 14, 2012 - Still growing and needs time. Lots of apricot and granny smith apple on the palate. Nice golden honey color. Tiny bubbles. Brioche, bisquit, cream on the nose. Gripping minerality and acidity but short dry finish. I really like this champagne but would love to see it in the next couple of years.

  Comment

Pro Reviews 4

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1996
• Type White - Sparkling
• Producer Pommery
• Varietal Champagne Blend
• Designation Brut Millésimé
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Champagne
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation Champagne

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 2 (5%)
• In Cellars 12 (28%)
• Consumed 29 (67%)

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