Tasting Notes
Robert Parker 96
This dark-colored wine’s aromas burst from the glass, inundating the nasal passages with loads of candied black currants, cherries, rose blossoms, lilies, and rosemary. This huge, velvety-textured, mouth-coating, and full-bodied wine is another in a long string of spectacular Musignys crafted by Christophe Roumier. Its palate is not as expressive as the previous wine’s but it is potentially more complex, revealing black cherries, stones, cassis liqueur, sauteed morels, porcini mushrooms, and violets. Its awesomely long finish presents a new spectrum of flavors including black raspberries and roses.
I have not had the opportunity to re-taste Roumier’s 1995 Musigny but my memory suggests it was even more concentrated and profound. Readers lucky enough to acquire this 1996 should cellar it through 2006 and drink it through 2018. Bravo!
Roumier informed me he was planning to bottle his 1996s earlier than usual to “trap the fruit.” He is of the opinion that they will not be exuberant, charming, and seductive following bottling. Virtually every vigneron agreed that the 1996s have been a delight to drink from the moment the grapes were pressed. Yet Roumier thinks they will need years to be expressive. Those 1996s that I have tasted stateside have maintained their forward, fruity character, but time will tell.
Importer: Chateaux and Estates Wine Co., New York, NY; Tel; (212) 572-7725.
Anticipated maturity: 2006-2018
