1996 Château Kirwan- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (2/28/2015)
What an interesting bottle! Cork in perfect shape (and very long), and came out perfectly. Sniffing at the neck proves delighful. Three hour decant. Deep garnet and blood color. Very spicy and fruity on the nose. Floral, but plummy. Very full in the mouth, with fruit, dark tobacco, and a strong tannic backbone. The tannins give it a bite of tar and licorice; almost too much, but there is so much flesh on the bones that this adds interest.
I’ve only had a few of this estates wines, but they are very firm (to me). I seem to remember a fairly priced bottle of this vintage at Ben Benson’s maybe 10-12 yrs ago? I don’t get the feel that its made like floral, feminine Margaux’s. Rausan Gassies is another one sort of in that mold. I actually moved the few I had laying around of this to deeper storage, where hopefully they’ll come around.
Thanks for sharing. Glad to know I wasn’t the only person who found this house on the mouthpuckering side.
