Eight hardy souls gathered in midtown Manhattan last Friday night for a 95 vs 96 Bordeaux show down. We assembled both the 95 and 96 from 8 chateau, paired them, bagged them, numbered them as pairs in random order, and then served them blind to both the vintage and chateau. Going into this, Vegas had the 1996s as prohibitive favorites given the fame of the northern Medoc in that vintage. Scuttlebutt that the 95 Medocs were coming on strong in recent years prompted this tasting. The showdown was very educational indeed.
My top 3 wines were (in order): the 1995 Pichon Lalande, the 1996 Ducru and the 1995 Cos. Other than the corked wines, only the 95 Calon Segur stuck out to me as a notable downgrade next to its flightmate. The quality overall was very, very high and I was pleasantly surprised how well the 95’s showed (on my personal score card, the 95s came out slightly ahead). Finally, these wines are just starting to drink well, but they are still too young for prime time in my book. Give them 10 years and then watch out. Fun that we preferred the 96 Magdelaine to the 95.
Here’s how the voting for the blind flights went (we tasted in descending order):
8A 1 vote (1995 Calon Segur)
8B 7 votes (1996 Calon Segur) * I preferred the 96
7A 2 votes (1995 Grand Puy Lacoste) *I preferred the 95
7B 2 votes (1996 Grand Puy Lacoste)
tied 4 votes
6A 5 votes (1996 Magdelaine) *I preferred the 96
6B 1 vote (1995 Magdelaine)
tied 2 votes
5A (1995 Pichon Lalande)
5B CORKED, no voting (1996 Pichon Lalande)
4A 7 votes (1995 Cos d’Estournel) *I preferred the 95
4B 1 vote (1996 Cos d’Estournel)
tied 1 vote
3A 7 votes (1996 Ducru Beaucaillou) *I preferred the 96
3B 1 vote (1995 Ducru Beaucaillou)
2A CORKED, no voting (1996 Pichon Baron) – very slightly corked
2B (1995 Pichon Baron)
1A 3 votes (1995 Leoville Poyferre) *I preferred the 95
1B 4 votes (1996 Leoville Poyferre)
tied 1 vote
Flight Totals
1995 won 1 flight
1996 won 3 flights
Two flights were tied (I called the Poyferre flights a tie).