Anson: The brilliance of 1996 Pauillac wines

One of the best tastings of 2020 was this small-but-perfectly-formed selection of 1996 Pauillac wines, held in December of last year.

Long recognised as the best vintage of the decade on the Left Bank of Bordeaux (along with the 1990), Decanter’s assessment at the time read, ‘A great year for Cabernet, especially in the northern Médoc, and most, though not all, tasters believe 1996 is even better than 1995’.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s 1996 Pauillac wine tasting notes and scores

This is a classic, old school Médoc vintage, with plenty of menthol notes and a fresh savoury quality to the fruit that is perfect for Pauillac.

It had been a slow and steady march to harvest.

The was a hot early season, with even and rapid flowering, and a dry but not overly hot August (with rain at the end, particularly on the Right Bank).

September was dry but 1°C cooler than average. There was some rain after 24 September, and the threat of rot meant that some estates picked at that point before full ripeness was reached. For those that held on, good weather returned in October.

All of this meant chunky tannins, and 1996 was long seen as an austere and backwards vintage; one that needed patience.

Just like the 2000 wines, these really did take a long time to come around, with firm tannins that you almost gave up on.

But it is now a brilliant way to understand just how good the best Bordeaux wines are at rewarding patience.

Why did the 1996 Pauillac vintage work so well, in particular?

It’s an appellation that is located on gravel soils, although with significant areas of sandy-clays and limestone, planted to a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon (62% of plantings as of 2018, along with 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot).

As Cabernet was the grape that performed best in 1996, the estates of this appellation were well-placed to capitalise.

Price-wise, 1996 was seen as an investment year, with a successful en primeur campaign in which wines were priced higher than their counterparts from 1995.

Lafite was €45 ex-château per bottle, up from €36 in 1995, while Lynch-Bages was released at €25.15 ex-château – today a case of 12 bottles costs around £1,550 in bond in the UK.

The Latour 1996, on its most recent release in 2014, was priced at £5,000 for a case of 12 in bond, and today stands at around £6,000.

These wines tell their own story. I chose Sociando-Mallet to join the lineup, because I was interested to see how it was performing, and to show how to find value even in the most celebrated years.

It is located on the same gravelly terraces as the Pauillac classifieds, sharing similar views over the Garonne estuary, but in AOC Haut-Médoc in the village of St-Seurin-de-Cadourne to the north of Pauillac, and outside of the 1855 Classification system.

At this point in 1996, owner Jean Gautreau, who died in 2019 aged 92, was very much in his prime, halfway through overseeing the 50 vintages that he was responsible for since buying 5ha of vines in 1969.

Over at Lynch-Bages, Jean-Michel Cazes was in charge of his family estate, but he was also still managing director at Pichon Baron, where he had been since 1987.

That means he was responsible for two of the properties in this tasting, reflecting a time when simply being owner of a fifth growth Pauillac was no guarantee of not needing a second career.

Cazes would remain with AXA Millésimes (at Pichon Baron) until 2000. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing was over the road at Pichon Comtesse heading up her own family estate, as she would continue doing until 2006.

In 1996, Château Latour was under the third year of owner François Pinault, and the second year with Frédéric Engerer as commercial director, before he went on to become CEO of the First Growth in 1998.

Engerer brought a wine obsessive’s fervour but also intellectual rigour and an outsider’s ability to see what was needed.

I found a fascinating interview with him from 2007, written by Andrew Jefford, where he talked about working for Pinault.

‘He pushes you to be as good as you can possibly be,’ he says. ‘What are you afraid of? Why don’t you do that? What’s stopping you? He liberates a lot of energy.’

Up the road at Lafite Rothschild, the estate was under the direction of Baron Eric de Rothschild, with Charles Chevallier as winemaker and Christophe Salin CEO.

Jancis Robinson at the time described the wine as ‘essence of 1996’ and I could not agree more.

It was the standout wine in this tasting, but also a signpost that points the way towards a vintage and an appellation that is ripe for enjoyment. Something we could all do with in 2021.

See Jane Anson’s 1996 Pauillac wine tasting notes and scores

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