[TN] '96 Lagrange

May 14, 2009 4 Replies

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Mark Lipton 17 years ago

Tonight, Jean and I celebrated our return home from vacation and the end of the semester with a dinner of roasted rack of lamb and sauteed asparagus. A good bottle of wine was called for, so Jean retrieved from the cellar:

1996 Ch. Lagrange (St. Julien) color: dark garnet with no bricking nose: CEDAR, dark fruit, herbs palate: fine grained tannins, strong acidic core, ripe fruit, herbal character

The wine Jean originally went down for wasn't there (she later recalled pulling it at Christmas) so she came up with this bottle. Still very youthful, it was reasonably ready to drink after a decant. Classic Bordeaux character came through, which was very reassuring after a few less-than-classic Bordeauxs recently. Great with the lamb, this was a classic Bordeaux experience for me.

Mark Lipton

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DaleW 17 years ago

Thanks for notes. Have a couple left, but holding off. Lagrange is a good example of the complexities of oak aging.I find that it almost always presents as quite oaky on release, but seems to absorb the oak in a few years (leaving behind those cedary notes you refer to). I've never had a Lagrange more than 5 years after release that seems oaky.Lower alcohol, drying regime of barrels, toast? I don't know

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Lawrence Leichtman 17 years ago

I have 3 half bottles of '96 Lagrange and am expecting them to be about right now.

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DaleW 17 years ago

Always hard to predict 375s vs 750s, but I'm guessing you're right

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Bi!! 17 years ago

I've been drinking a few of my '96 Bordeaux and I'm finding a lot of hit and misses as far as maturity. I like Bordeaux on the front edge to middle of the aging peak. I'm find some especially Pauillac that are still quite young and slightly closed. I had a '96 Palmer recently that was a bit further on showing nice upfront fruit but plenty of secondary notes of cedar and tobacco so Margaux may beginning to age a bit more.

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