Community Tasting Note
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Bordeaux_Jon Likes this wine: 92 points
April 30, 2016 - I'm evaluating this wine to serve at my wedding. I have mixed feelings. The nose is really nice with a good amount of fruit despite the 20 years, along with some oak notes, foresty aspects, and maybe some cigar. It doesn't have the definition of the best of St. Julien but the nose was nonetheless impressive for a second wine and $30.
The palate was not as promising as I'd hoped. I felt that the wine was not particularly complex and a bit thin and disjointed. Still more concerning is that it is a bit overly acidic, which seems to be a potential issue with the underripe 1996 vintage. It's definitely drinkable but I worry if those with California palates might not find this enjoyable. I bet food would help with this wine. Rated 91.
Interestingly, I took the rest of this bottle to a blind tasting on 6/22/2016 with Cabernet and Merlot from 1996 from around the world, with a Caymus, Cantemerle and 4 Duckhorns. I could not pick it out in the tasting, but ranked it 4th out of 9 and 93 points. Others like it a quite a bit less and ranked it 8th.1 person found this helpful 4,271 views
2 Comments
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DavidWong168 commented:
8/31/16, 11:42 AM - Interesting. How was the bottle stored between 4/30 and 6/22?
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Bordeaux_Jon commented:
9/14/16, 7:46 PM - I stored the bottle horizontally in my 55F home wine cooler. Nothing particularly special. I do feel like the Coravin wines sometimes evolve a bit in bottle, but for the Bordeaux wines, it almost always seems to be an improvement.