1996 Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes

As is usually the case, this wine is superb. It is dark ruby-colored and offering candied black fruit scents interspersed with floral and red currant fragrances, this hugely concentrated, extracted, and expansive wine is densely packed with seamless layers of blackberries, cassis liqueur, Asian spices, and stones. It is broad-shouldered, full-bodied, elegant, and possesses an incredibly long and fabulously precise finish. It will be fascinating to taste it side by side with the magnificent 1995 in a decade or so. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2012. Importer: Peter Weygandt, Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800.