If the 1855 classification were rewritten today, does Lynch-Bages stay a fifth growth, or does it move up?
1996 Pauillac was a Cabernet vintage through and through. A warm, dry September benefited the Left Bank, and the wines that came out of it were built for patience. Structured, concentrated, made to last.
This bottle is showing beautifully right now. An hour of air brought out another level entirely.
Blackcurrant, graphite, cedar, tobacco leaf, a whisper of violet. Tannins still firm but fine, carrying a finish that kept unfolding long after the glass was empty.
1996 Château Latour, tasted single-blind against the other four First Growths plus Léoville Las Cases, all 1996. I knew the lineup, not the glasses.
This bottle also happened to get poured last, which meant it had the shortest window to open of any wine on the table, at the exact moment it needed the longest.
It held tight for the first hour: dense, almost stubborn, more scaffolding than wine.
Slowly it started giving up cassis and dark plum, then iron and wet gravel underneath. The tannin never fully resolved. By the end of the night it was still working.
This wine is absolutely one of the best in this lineup, but is easily also the youngest in terms of its evolution.
For more insights from this tasting, please watch this video:
1996 Bordeaux First Growths Blind: Which One Actually Won?
https://t.co/rTRGyIIE8V
Rioja brought real talent to Dallas this week. Hotel Swexan turned into a full-room Grand Tasting, producers pouring shoulder to shoulder, and the kind of range on the tables that makes you rethink what you assumed about the region walking in.
Rioja gets flattened into one idea a lot: oak, vanilla, an old-school Reserva that tastes the same every vintage. Standing in that room, that idea didn't survive the first hour. Some pours were exactly the benchmark I expected, built the classical way and tasting like it. Others were leaner, fresher, clearly made by someone who grew up drinking the old style and decided to push somewhere else with it. That tension, between the region's history and where a new generation is taking it, is the most interesting thing happening in Rioja right now.
There also lots of exciting white wines being produced in Rioja.
Here are pictures of some of the standouts!
Great question! Those two were definitely showing the best that night. Both were expressive, elegant, and perfectly balanced with extremely long, complex finishes.
About an hour or two into the tasting everyone wanted to vote. I had a very hard time choosing between these two. Ultimately had to pick and had a microscopic preference for what turned out to be Lafite at the time of voting.
It was pretty much a dead heat but thought about which one I would want again if I could only try one of them. Can’t go wrong either way though and could have easily been the Margaux if we voted at a different time that night.