Tasting Notes
Vinous 92+
Good full red. Pure, highly perfumed aromas of cassis, licorice, minerals and flowers. Wonderfully precise and taut in the mouth, with lovely sweetness and terrific verve. A delicate musky quality adds to the wine’s complexity. An uncommonly strong vintage for this wine, from a crop level of just 25 hectoliters per hectare.
Robert Parker 92
A touch of russet on the rim " this is more mature in appearance than the 1996 Echezeaux! The nose is soft, with red-berried fruit, a touch of mocha and nougat in the background. Perhaps lacking the breeding of the other vintages poured at this horizontal. But the palate is showing very well with exquisite ripe red fruits: raspberry, red cherry and redcurrant with just a touch of beetroot in the background. Fleshy and giving towards the finish with good length (perhaps longer though less complex than the 1996.) I think this is reaching its plateau where it should stay for 6- to 8-years. Tasted February 2008.
Burghound 92
The latest bottle of this still youthful effort was notably bretty and while the hallmark spice and perfumed dark berry fruit elements were still visible, it would be fair to say that the brett was not additive. There is a lovely sense of vibrancy to the pure, sweet and remarkably powerful middle weight flavors that possess more volume than usual, all wrapped in a persistent and mouth coating finish. The amount of seve is impressive as is the sheer spiciness and this is a good deal more refined than in most vintages. I should also observe that while I found the brett off-putting, most people loved it. I have only tried this one bottle recently and thus I don’t know whether it was representative of the wine in general and thus my score offers the benefit of the doubt that it wasn’t.
