Community Tasting Note

• William Kelley wrote:

  May 6, 2015 - The 1996 Engel wines all have noticeable volatile acidity, and the domaine seems to have had an especially bad batch of corks in this vintage, so caveat emptor, but the wine opens up in the glass to reveal a nice nose of plums, spice, blood orange and leather, without every quite losing the rusty pipe bloodiness it showed on opening. On the palate the wine has considerable authority and volume, with nice bright acids, but it's ultimately disjointed. I found it really hard to get a read on this wine, and despite the vintage's good reputation I would go for almost any other if given the choice.

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2 Comments

• The Vines That Bind commented:

  11/8/21, 4:11 PM - Hi William, I just posted a note on my very disappointing magnum drank last week... Do you have any additional intel / resources on the '96 vintage at Engel, or the domaine generally? Thank you.

• William Kelley commented:

  11/10/21, 12:03 PM - Nothing to add, really, beyond the fact that it wasn't a success for Engel and that that was compounded by bad corks. 1996 was tricky, with marginal maturity and super high levels of malic acidity plus low pH, meaning it was hard to get malolactics to complete. The wines sat without sulfur, and cellars were sometimes heated, as producers waited for them to complete. The result was often rather aromatically fatigued but still bracingly acidic wines. The best 1996s are brilliant but the average isn't something that makes one dream.

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