1996 Domaine Méo-Camuzet Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru

“From magnum. Dense dark colour beginning to show maturity. Profound and beautiful nose, the oak is now well integrated with the fruit and there is impressive depth here. Huge weight on the palate without losing any subtlety, it's glorious wine still vibrantly youthful. Black fruit, plums, balance and length.” (03/2014)

“Wow. Spicy blackberry aromas and flavors are matched by richness, power and a searing intensity as the vibrant acidity and tannins climax on the finish. Great length and focus. *Cellar Selection* (PM)” (09/1998)

“This medium-to-dark ruby/purple-colored offering has a magnificent nose of deeply ripe dark fruits intermingled with traces of underbrush and Asian spices. This fat, expressive, rich, expansive, and full-bodied wine has an awesome texture (pure velvet), gorgeous balance, and loads of showy and opulent fruit. Plump black cherries, plums, blueberries, and cassis are intertwined with minerals, earth, and hints of porcini mushrooms in this elegant, muscular wine's flavor profile. (PR)” (08/1998)

“Consistent with many of the better '96s, this is still completely primary with light spice and earth nuances adding depth to the very fresh red berry fruit aromas that precede racy, intense and impressively precise middle weight flavors that culminate in a solidly long and detailed finish. Though this is not an especially dense wine, it is very well balanced as the acidity does not dominate the finish. In a word, lovely.” (11/2009)

“The Méo-Camuzet ’96 Clos Vougeot is a very suave and aromatically complex example of the vintage that has seen some of its tannin already fall away, but the wine still needs a few more years for its girdle of acidity to relax a bit and allow the wine to develop the velvety texture that seems likely to arrive in the fullness of time. Aromatically, this is one truly lovely bottle of Clos Vougeot, offering up scents of fresh plums, black cherries, striking minerality, woodsmoke, espresso, fresh herbs and a deft touch of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and quite tangy, with ripe, quite, moderate tannins, a good core, fine focus and lovely length and grip on the well-balanced, bouncy finish. Ironically, this seems even a tad more backwards that the domaine’s ’96 Richebourg served out of magnum, but I suspect that there is just a bit more matière in the Richebourg, which better buffers the structural element of the wine and consequently gives that impression. The 1996 Clos Vougeot is a lovely example of the vintage, but I would give it at least another three or four years in the cellar to blossom- or decant it for an hour ahead of serving to let the acids relax a bit on the palate.” (09/2011)

“Deep red. Complex, fresh aromas of black cherry, raspberry, smoke, spice and licorice. Firm, intensely flavored and strong in extract. Strong acidity carries the slightly floral fruit through the very long, firm finish. (ST) 91+” (04/1999)