1996 Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru
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Tasting notes
Crafted from 40 to 48 year old vines from equal-sized parcels in three vineyards (Les Baudes, Feusselottes, and Plantes), this dark purple-colored wine has lovely violet, perfumed, and blueberry-infused scents. This masculine, highly-structured, chewy-textured, concentrated, and extracted offering is crammed with candied blueberries, blackberries, and minerals. This outstanding wine should be at its peak between 2000 and 2006. Vincent Geantet, a young man who appears to be in his mid-thirties, produces seductive, supple, flavorful, and immensely pleasurable wines. His wines (out of bottle) are filled with exuberant and lush fruit and are seemingly ready to drink. They are aged in one-third new oak (from a multitude of sources) with a heavy reliance on first year barrels, and are neither fined nor filtered. Geantet informed me that all had been bottled on January 7 by an itinerant bottling truck. Importer: A Daniel Johnnes Selection, Jeroboam Imports, New York, NY; tel (212) 374-9415 and Kysela Pere et Fils, Fran Kysela, Winchester, VA; tel (540) 722-9228.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Pierre Rovani
More reviews and scores
Very good deep red. Shy but perfumed aroma of dark berries. More intensely flavored than the vieilles vignes; dense and spicy, with mineral cut and firm acids giving it terrific clarity. Again, not sweet but not dry. Shows a more obvious stony backbone. May yet merit a higher score.