1996 Duval-Leroy Femme de Champagne
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Tasting notes
The straw-yellow/white-golden colored 1996 Femme de Champagne Millésime Brut (Lot L0271 NM, disgorged in September 2010) offers a clear and intense, concentrated bouquet of white and dried fruits along with lemon and some tropical flavors. On the fresh and silky textured palate, there is a remarkable finesse and lightness, and the finish reveals not just a very nice maturity and complexity, but also stunning aromatic stone fruit aromas. The finish is pretty juicy and aromatic, and displays pineapple and succulent nectarine flavors, as well as vitalizing lemon aromas. Stunningly fresh and vital for a 20-year-old Champagne.
Critic scores
Average Score
Richard Juhlin
Wine Spectator
More reviews and scores
Deep yellow in color the 1996 Femme de Champagne offers a complex, superbly clear, multilayered and fresh bouquet of cooked and roasted apples, citrus flavors, brioche, apricots, a touch of caramel and a hint of farmyard smell. Medium-bodied but full-flavored, clear and complex on the palate this is a stimulatingly and persistently pure, fresh and minerally flavored Champagne with citrus flavors in the aftertaste. Impressively vital and young this delicate but expressive Champagne is lovely to drink today but can be stored for another decade.
The estate’s 1996 Brut Femme de Champagne is really quite pretty in the way it balances some of the more mature notes from extended lees aging with the freshness of the vintage. To be sure, this isn’t a blockbuster 1996, but the Femme de Champagne offers plenty of class and elegance in an approachable, delicate style for the vintage. The rich, radiant fruit flows effortlessly through to the long, satisfying finish. This is a terrific effort from Duval-Leroy. This is Lot L9250N. Disgorged September 7, 2009. Antonio Galloni
The estate's 1996 Brut Femme de Champagne is really quite pretty in the way it balances some of the more mature notes from extended lees aging with the freshness of the vintage. To be sure, this isn't a blockbuster 1996, but the Femme de Champagne offers plenty of class and elegance in an approachable, delicate style for the vintage. The rich, radiant fruit flows effortlessly through to the long, satisfying finish. This is a terrific effort from Duval-Leroy. This is Lot L9250N. Disgorged September 7th, 2009.