WTN: Ch. Lanessan 1996

Seemingly, at the more pointy-end, “value-for-money” and “Bordeaux” are terms that have become antithetic over recent decades. This very good Cru Bourgeois Chateau delivers the goods here, albeit in a very small way, thumbing its nose at that notion.

A wine that punches well above its weight, chocka-block full of left-bank “goodness” with the usual suspects to the fore - damp earth with a touch of barnyard buttressed by sweet blackcurrant, provencal herbs, cedar, spicy, savoury French oak, medium body, good length, fine acids and still lively firm tannin promising some considerable longevity for those with patience. About 87 points on my score card and excellent value for the lowly price of admission. Drink now - 2020. 13% A/V and sealed with a good quality cork.

thanks for notes, agree this has been a very good value.

[James Roscoe]

Didn't I see you being lauded as a Bordeaux expert by some American blogger on Facebook? What's up with the Bordeaux?

Nice note here. I wlll be on the lookout for this one. How is it closed?

I wlll be on the lookout for this one. How is it closed?

sealed with a good quality cork.

Pretty sure any 1996 Bdx you could find would have natural cork.

K&L in CA still has this for $20 (and has for a year+) They must have bought 10 pallets.
I don't know what this was at release (probably roughly $10), but if you use commercial storage, the $20 would have barely covered storage fees.

I don't know what this was at release (probably roughly $10), but if you use commercial storage, the $20 would have barely covered storage fees.

I bought it as future for $12. Not quite sure what I was thinking to buy Lanessan as future! ... but certainly worth the cost. I still have most of them left.
Charles

This was a strange one for me because it tasted best near its release and then went into a long sleep, waking up only a couple of years ago. 1996 was not an early drinking year, but at a Toronto restaurant in 2000, as I remember, it was the only appropriate claret I could buy given the suspected palates of my colleagues at the table. I didn’t think they would like a good Bordeaux so I didn’t want to spend a lot on one. It was wonderfully earthy and open when I approved it. I loved it.

A couple of heavily set folks, a man and a woman, sat across from me. The man picked up the bottle and filled the lady’s glass to the meniscus, and it was a big glass. Then he did the same in his, leaving only a tiny pour in the bottle. The woman said she didn’t like it, but sipped at it through dinner, along with a sloe gin fizz, or something like that, she ordered, so I couldn’t just take it from her. (I did that once, though, to a total stranger at the table when she declared she didn't like a nice pour of a 1989 Mouton Rothschild. I said I will drink it if you don't want it. It tasted as good as the 1989 Montrose I had.) The guy ordered a whisky sour and did pretty much the same thing.

I went back the next night alone and asked for another bottle. I was informed that we had finished off the last one the previous evening. So I cursed some and bought a case in New York City after arriving home. The first bottle didn’t taste as good as the wine had in the restaurant, and seemed closed. So I tried a bottle every couple of years since and found them tasting pretty good this year. I guess I have one or two left. Impressive looking chateau on the label for a Cru B.