Served in white wine glasses at my request. Lovely gold colour. Very energetic and persistent tiny bubbles. Strong legs for a champagne. Lovely fresh hay, toasted marshmallow, fresh-baked croissant on the nose. Palate is massively fresh and invigorating ozone and crushed oyster shells, really scintillating. Feels like it is a much more recent vintage but this is from a case bought on release. A nice light buzzy resonance. Lovely now if you like your champagne young but one day it will match the 1996 for sure. Wow! Fantastic as an aperitif and also with lightly braised Hokkaido scallops with chorizo. It is a good food champagne. Probably the best bottle of this vintage of maybe a couple of dozen I have drank over the years. Had it beeen drank blind, I would have assumed 2002 Oenoteque rather than a regular bottle.....so fresh.

Decanted for 7 hours. Semi-Translucent dense deep red cherry skin. Nose is early morning black fresh laid asphalt, fresh but almost chilled raspberries. Palate is slightly softened mellowed tannins but still very tightly wound, fresh acidity. Great dark fruits hiding in the back of a cave like a grumpy growling bear awakening from hibernation. Nicely reverberant and resonant finish but still a work in progress. But it grew on me more with extended time in the glass. Drank alongside the more feminine Bruno Giacosa Falletto 2000. 92+ for now? Can only improve.

6-hour decant (which was about right...if maybe a bit short). Lighter than the 1999 Conterno. Translucent red cherry colour. Lovely lifted and accessible strawberry and raspberry with a hint of smoke and asphalt. Palate is tart but accessible tannin, quite drying in the mouth, lovely rich black and red cherry fruit, almost a Merlot softness, all very primary but accessible, Needs another 5-10 years to unveil. Personally, I preferred the 1999 Conterno tonight. Interestingly we did the same duo on New Years Eve in 2018. This is a Hill of Grace compared to the Conterno’s Grange.