1996 Domaine Anne Gros, Richebourg Grand Cru 1x750ml

Vinous 96

Similar red-ruby color. Fabulous, noble aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, flowers, minerals and sappy oak. Juicy black fruit flavors of extraordinary intensity and sweetness. Uncanny inner-mouth perfume. The explosive finish builds and builds. One of the high points of the vintage. [Stephen Tanzer, 01/03/1999]

Robert Parker 93

This wine is also inky black-colored but its tightly wound blackberry, cassis, and mint scents are quite different from the Clos Vougeot’s. Super-ripe cherries, black raspberries, and cassis are drenched in copious quantities of fat and round tannins in this blockbuster’s flavor profile. This is an expansive, thickly-textured, full-bodied, highly-extracted, and awesomely powerful wine that impresses by its size, balance, density of fruit, and sublime length. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2012+. Readers looking for ruby-colored, delicate, refined, and elegant wines to drink over the next decade are well-advised to shop elsewhere. Domaine Anne Gros’ offerings are highly extracted monsters. Anne Gros is pushing the extraction and concentration envelope of this wine to uncharted limits. This inky, hugely-dense, and highly-structured wine may, in time, evolve into a stellar Burgundy, meriting a significantly higher rating than the one I’ve provided, but a wine of such sheer size and weight does not always age gracefully. Time will tell. A Peter Vezan Selection (Paris Fax # 011-33-1-42-65-42-93). [Pierre Rovani, 08/01/1998]

Anticipated maturity: 2005-2012