1995 vs 1996 Burgs

NYC
Tasted Saturday, December 5, 1998 by mdefreitas with 1,041 views

Introduction

The Burgundy Wine Company, in NYC, held an all day tasting of Burgundies, comparing the 1995 and the 1996 vintages. Whites were tasted in the morning, reds in the afternoon. Non-blind pairs of the same wine ('95 and '96) were presented. Then the pairs were presented without knowing which vintage was which. Finally, single wines were poured, and we were asked to guess the vintage.

Flight 1 - NON-BLIND PAIRED WHITES (10 Notes)

Flight 2 - BLIND PAIRED WHITES (10 Notes)

Flight 3 - BLIND SINGLE WHITES (5 Notes)

Flight 4 - NON-BLIND PAIRED REDS (8 Notes)

Flight 5 - BLIND PAIRED REDS (10 Notes)

Flight 6 - BLIND SINGLE REDS (6 Notes)

Closing

CONCLUSIONS ON WHITES:

I was amazed at how these two vintages really did have a "character" to them. The '95s tended to be darker in color and have more "honey" and oak flavors, but in some cases, the acidity was too soft. The '96s tended to be more citrus-like and minerally with wonderfull acidity... also, they were more closed but will definitly improve with cellar time. If you love crisp acicity in your white Burgundies (as I do), you really have to go to the '96s... Especially in Chablis (where the yields were lower than in '95 -- the reverse of typical Cote d' Or yields).

In general, it was pretty easy to detect the vintages when presented with a "side by side" comparison. Without a comparison wine, it was a bit more difficult (duh!). At the higher appelations, the wines could be so great as to make simple generalizations invalid.

CONCLUSIONS ON REDS:

The reds seemed to be more even in quality than the whites. It became very difficult to pick the vintage without a comparison wine. The one telling sign between the vintages was that the '96s were typically darker -- but not necessarily more intense in flavor. The '95s were perhaps a bit more riper, and the '96s had perhaps a bit more "pure", "focused" fruit. I know these are not concrete descriptors, but its the best I can do. The '95s also seemed like they would be ready sooner (lower acidity?).

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