TN: 1996 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac)

[JimHow]

• 1996 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (6/4/2009)
  This wine just keeps improving. Classic Pauillac. Everything was working against it tonight: The cork from the half-bottle was crumbled, provenance from the New Hampshire Liquor Store was probably not the greatest. Nonetheless, this was a joy to drink, beautifully expressive from the moment I finally got the disintigrating cork removed. Great integration of fruit and wood, tobacco and black currant. A wine that I once considered a disappointment is now strutting its stuff at age thirteen. Drinking well now and for another ten to twenty years. Slight fading at the rim, but that could be possibly due to provenance.(92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[SteveH]

Sounds delicious, and in keeping with our BWE discovery of excellent quality, underrated 1996 Bordeaux.

I think I should be test drinking my ' 89 Baron as well.

[Claudius]

Sounds good!
I have 15 bottles of this (long story) thus I'm impressed!

[Michael Malinoski]

I only have one bottle (well, it is actually my wife's, according to her), but am also gratified to hear it is coming around!

Thanks for the note, Jim.

Michael

[JEP_62]

Sounds delicious, and in keeping with our BWE discovery of excellent quality, underrated 1996 Bordeaux.

I think I should be test drinking my ' 89 Baron as well.

Probably a good idea. I've never had the '89, but I've been hearing some good things about it lately. Unfortunately, I don't have any as I didn't start buying Baron until the '94 vintage.

Andy

[Ramon_NYC]

I'm glad to see that the 96 PB is coming along well. Have had up-and-down experiences with this and decided to let the remainder in the offsite for awhile.
I've had the 89 PB twice last year and in both occasions it was a unanimously praised as drinking very well.

[Comte Flaneur]

I only had this once with fellow BWERs at the NYC Pauillac tasting in 2006. I thought it was brilliant and was my wotn edging out GPLs 95 and 78, preferable to Pichon Lalande 95 and easily beating Latour 94 and Mouton 98.

Very happy to have a case of this; absolutely inconsolable not to have some its sister in 96. But this surely will enter into the pantheon of great 96 left banks.

Another one is Lagrange, which with BD, Blanquito, our very own Jim Morrison lookalike, Ramon and Schlabwr, was a short head behind a LLC 96 at an early 08 gathering of BWErs...you can get this for $66 a bottle at a place called the Wine Connection in Westchester County, entre nous...stonking VFM.

[Blanquito]

I was with Comte at the Pauillac tasting, and I concur that the PB 96 was terrific. I gave the edge to the PL 95 on that night, but that's no insult.

And indeed, watch out for the 96 Lagrange which is still improving (other BWEers touted this wine long before me, Hound being one I believe). Tanzer gave it a 93 and he's on the money (and that's 93 Tanzer points, not Parker points). There are better 96's Bordeaux, but few with a better QPR even at $66. Too bad it's no longer $30 (what I paid in late 2003).

How did the storage/condition of the wines appear at the Wine Connection, Ian?

[Comte Flaneur]

I haven't taken delivery yet Patrick...but Ramon flagged this place up for the Vieille Cure 05, which they are selling at $21 (less than the 04 at $24)

I ordered nine bottles plus 15 of other really interesting stuff mainly barolos.

[JimHow]

Thanks for the lead on that '96 Lagrange Ian, i'm going to check it out.