TN: 1996 Fourrier CSJ

I grabbed an auction lot of 5 bottles last week and all the levels were good, but this was the weakling with 1.5cm of ullage.
I had not tasted this wine since Jean Marie Fourrier was in Sydney in 98 or 99 and I went to a lunch/tasting at Darling Mills in Glebe and I have not seen the wine in the market since then.

The cork came out intact and in great condition, the smell of mature red fruit hit me straight away.
I poured myself a small glass to check for faults and condition, the wine tasted a little skinny and was obviously in need of some air so I left the bottle while I prepared dinner.
One and a half hours later I poured myself a glass to drink with my steak, the wine wasnt fully open but was showing in a very elegant style with fully resolved tannins and a great length although the finish tailed off and the acidity took over.
At two and a half hours the front palate closed down and the acidity became drying (this phase of the wine lasted around 30 minutes).
Three hours in and BAM the wine woke up and shifted a few gears The front palate was crystalline red fruit, the midpalate swelled and grew in mouth filling intensity which created the perfect bridge to the two minute long finish that was like tiny little pleasure grenades detonating behind my tonsils.
This wine is all about intensity and elegance in a very refined package, drinking very very well now with no end in sight

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Sounds good. Steaks look a touch rare for me.

I am too ashamed to put up a cooked shot, my wife and daughter prefer meat in the well done spectrum of cooked.
I prefer to remember those steaks as they were (raw and full of potential).

Sounds like a great experience. I remember having this out of barrel with Jean-Marie and it was the first vintage where he was in full control. It stopped me dead in my tracks.

When you say the cork was in great condition, what does that mean to to you exactly (i.e. cork soaked but intact, cork half soaked, etc.? I’m trying to use this info to inform my own drinking window for my meager supple. Thanks.

Cork soaked about 1/3 up but still very elastic and supple.
No apparent leakage around the cork.
This wine had years of life ahead

I don’t know whether anyone on this board is qualified to answer the question, but how do you get ullage without oxidation?

If air isn’t moving back into the bottle, then either you’re getting a vacuum, or else some gas is emerging [from the wine?] to fill what otherwise would have been a very low pressure space in the bottle.

If anyone can comment authoritatively on the chemistry & physics of ullage, then I’d like to hear about it.

Great, thanks for the info. When do you plan on popping the next one?

I have promised to open one with the current Fourrier importer here in New Zealand, so it will be sooner rather than later, even after 3 hours of breathing in the bottle the wine was still improving so I am considering using one of the Jancis Robinson old wine decanters (tall and narrow with a narrow neck) on the next bottle.
I will be sure to report back