Critic Notes
Gentle at first, offering rose petal aromas, it turns quite savage and tough on the palate, with loads of fruit cloaked in the very firm tannin structure. The acidity is there, and the length is terrific, but it needs time. Best from 2006 through 2026. Wine Spectator Sep 30, 1999
Score: 95-/100Wine Spectator
Crimson with smudgy rim. The particularly complex nose comes in a cloud. As though rich, ripe Pinot just rubbed itself over the palate! Actually very youthful with marked fine tannins but no excess of acidity. Lots of zest and life – really racy. Such a fine filigree texture. Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com
Score: 18-/20Jancis Robinson
The 1996 Romanee Saint-Vivant Grand Cru continues to be an absolutely delightful wine from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, and puts to rest memories of a sub-par bottle tasted blind several years ago. Now two decades old, it retains a healthy color with little sign of ageing. The bouquet is fresh and vital, angular at first yet seeming to gain harmony with each swirl of the glass. It is not intense, but prioritizes clarity and tension over power. Dark berry fruit emerge first, briary and Vervain tea, an underlying mineralite eventually coming forth. The palate is very well balanced, quite linear and certainly not flamboyant or flattering. It makes you, the taster, work to seek out its nuances, its energy and refinement. Hints of black cherry intermingle with a marine-like undertow that governs that finish. It does not posses huge depth and I think Aubert de Villaine makes a more sophisticated wine nowadays, but it remains a joy. Tasted September 2016. Dec 2016, www.robertparker.com
Score: 94-/100Neal Martin
This bright ruby-colored wine's nose is magnificent. Its complex fragrances of perfume, roses, violets, crisp cherries, and cassis are intermingled with Asian spices, mocha, and faint hints of earth. Wow! Its aromas merit a score in the upper-90s! As often happens with wines from this vineyard, it is more appealing aromatically than gustatorily. That being said, this wine has a dense, ripe, and expressive character. It is a delicious, medium-to-full-bodied, refined, highly-delineated, and toasty cherry-flavored offering. Drink (and smell!) it between 2002 and 2012. Pierre Rovani, Wine Advocate # 118
Score: 91-93/100The Wine Advocate
A gorgeously spicy and seductively complex nose that is still quite primary and the fruit spectrum is almost completely black followed by tight, primary, intense, structured flavors that at the moment don't quite seem to have adequate buffering fat. This finishes with class, grace and fine length though there is a dry edginess and it is not clear that this will ever completely harmonize. A very good rather than genuinely great effort. Multiple and consistent notes. Allen Meadows, Burghound Dec19,2005
Score: 91-/100Allen Meadows, Burghound
