TN: 1996 Bordeaux at Gavroche

Nice group tasted a bunch of '96s last night. In payment-voting-taxi flurry I left my notes; but thought I'd at least post impressions before I get influenced by other posters. Some very good wines, my grading is tougher than usual due to compebreastion:

St Emilion Flight

La Gomerie-clear winner of flight, ripe red fruit and coffee, B

Troplong Mondot- tannic, tannic, and tannic. Some mocha and red plum, but tannins dominated. B-

Monbousquet-wierd nose. At first I though corked, but no- more chemical. Some nice fruit underneath, too bad C+

Pessac-Leognan

Smith Haut Lafite- Arv says coconut, Frank says green pepper, I say no thanks (with other . B-

Pape Clement-ah,more like it. Rich fruit, good earthy aromas. B+

Haut Brion-Good but tight. I vote for winner of flight, as do most, but for me it was close. Some says fell apart with time, but I didn't save enough to find out. B+-A-

St Julien #1

Ducru-Beaucaillou- Gorgeous. Crushed berry fruit nose, clear and clean. Unanimous winner of flight I think. A-

Talbot- really barnyardy nose (more than any of the numerous bottles- well, most were half-bottles) I've tried before. But nice round fruit on palate. B

St Julien #2

Leoville Poyferre- I know this bottle is flawed- I've had several times,and never this intense saddle sweat nose. Shouldn't be graded.

Leoville Barton - this seems off too, but not as extreme. Slightly corked? B-

Leoville Las Cases- this rocks. A little VA at first (though it had been decanted), but blows off and leaves a mbuttive but gorgeous wine. Wine of the flight, and my WOTN. A

Pauillac#1

Pichon Baron- beautiful, fresh, ripe. Probably QPR winner of the night. A-

Pichon Lalande- good but with a little green funkiness underneath at first, but morphs into a rich pretty wine. This flight is a tossup (I vote for Baron for value), majority prefers Lalande. A-

Pauillac #2

Grand Puy Lacoste- Deep, big, ripe tannins. A-

Pontet Canet- very good , just outclbutted in this flight. B-B+

Lynch Bages- big, ripe. B+

St Estephe

Montrose -very good, but backward. B+

Cos D'estournel - Rich, coffee and red fruit, big tannins. My second favorite of night, but I'm only one with this in top 3. A--A

Lafon Rochet - Thin compared to flight mates, probably not bad overall. But in this compebreastion B-

John B. served a blind Sauternes. Guesses were all over the place. It was the 2001 de Fargues - double-decanted on 4-24! B+

Though table was tight, I enjoyed food at Gavroche. Convivial crowd, thanks to organizers (primarily Matt). Overall I was very pleased with showing of the Medocs (except the Poyferre & Barton, I think both were off especially the Poyferre).

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. Disclaimer of disclaimer- last night I was a tougher scorer.