1996 Jean León Cabernet Sauvignon Penedès Gran Reserva

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 88.4 points

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  4/9/2019 - maxima wrote: 86 Points

  Végétal et terreux, semble sur sa pente descendante.
  Pas vraiment mon style, plus de tertiaire que de fruit!

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  11/26/2015 - AV2012 wrote: 85 Points

  Jean Leon wines: Dense and meaty. Initially vegetables, cooked onion, some beetroots. Quite full body, dry aronia on the palate. Port-like concentration and dryness, very tannic and dry. Give it time to open up in a decanter. I would also cellar it longer, but quite unsure if/when it will unfurl. Now it is interesting, but too closed, tannic, powerful not that enjoyable.

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  9/30/2014 - forceberry wrote: 88 Points

  Aged for 3 years in new oak barrels and for 3-5 years in bottles before release.
  
  Dark, opaque red color with developed orange hue. Developed, meaty nose with aromas of leather, toasted wood, rich cassis, some dry roasted spices and a hint of smoke. Medium-bodied-to-light, delicate and soft palate with flavors of dry, cracking leather, savory, wizened blackcurrants, some oxidized pruney fruit and a hint of sweet oak spice. Although the mouthfeel is soft due to rather low acidity and aged texture, the tannins are still very tough, prominent and grippy, giving the wine quite good structure. The tannins become even more prominent in the tough, tannic finish which leaves long, developed flavors of spicy oak, toffee, plummy dark fruit and some oxidative nuttiness on the tongue.
  
  A nice, impressive and positively stern Cabernet Sauvignon, which suffers from excessive oak aging and low acidity; furthermore, the wine had been open for 2 full days before this tasting, so it might be that it had deteriorated a bit during that time, losing some of its aromas, flavors and acidity. All in all, if the wine was after almost 20 years a) this tannic and b) this oaky, I can safely assume this much new oak will never integrate into the wine, because it seemed that the fruit and structure were starting to give in already. Although the wine showed lighter and more delicate finesse instead of huge, extracted fruit, I wouldn't say that the wine was really balanced, and I doubt it will ever be. An interesting and nicely developed effort nevertheless. I'm still not sure if the wine is actually worth 44,50€ - it's not that much for a Cabernet Sauvignon with 18 years of age, but this wine really does not show really anything of real interest.

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  2/29/2012 - Singerdouglas wrote: 94 Points

  OMG. Even though this a cabernet it felt like I was drinking an beautiful aged rioja (even though this is from the penedes). I bought the last 3 bottles the store had and wish they had more.

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  4/23/2009 - David J Cooper wrote:

  Deep red. Herbs, Iron, dust and vanilla oak with a bit of red fruit. Quite tannic. a nice wine that didn't say Spain to me.

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