Wine vintage rating 1996

What was the vintage 1996 like?

1996 A vintage that favors the left bank (Médoc) slightly over St Emilion and Pomerol. Italy with Piedmont very well. Top vintage in Burgundy. The weather has been good throughout the year, just a little too much up and down between warm and dry and cool and humid. The Médoc wines have a dense tannin structure for long life and long storage, the merlot-influenced wines are perhaps less long-distance runners and are still very drinkable. I really like some Cru Bourgeois classics. Restrictions from the wine critics are often complaining at a high level, because there are always enough of the neighboring vintages for the 90s and everyone has their favorite vintages.

After the highly traded 1995 vintage, the 1996 was initially underestimated. Changeable weather in summer, but a warm, dry September resulted in aromatically ripe grapes with high acid levels in Champagne. Excellent vintage for champagne.
Very good vintage in Piedmont and Tuscany - started late due to a cool spring, but perfect for classically elegant wines due to a long, warm summer.

Weather in the year 1996

A stormy winter ended with a sudden rise in temperature in the last days of March. April stayed dry. Uniform flowering was completed in June.

The summer was promising. June very warm, July a little cooler. Rain shortly before the harvest made things difficult for the Merlot vines and forced strict selection.

Then it got really warm again in October.

The current stock of wines from the 1996 vintage

All wines from the 1996 vintage are in our own wine cellar and can be shipped immediately or picked up at the wine shop. To the wines of 1996

Good filling levels, good wine quality

The fill level of an old vintage wine reveals important information on the drinkability of the wine.
Of course, the good condition of a wine from an old vintage depends on excellent storage. Above all, the wine must not have frequently changed cellars. Ideally, the wine will have rested in one and the same wine cellar.

But also the cork that sits in each individual bottle is very important. A perfect cork has few pores and keeps the wine stable. If an inferior cork happens to have been used in a bottle, the porous surface will begin to soak up wine and allow micro-quantities of the liquid to evaporate over the decades. Poor fill levels are the result.

A poor fill level therefore also indicates a high risk that the wine bottle could soon begin to leak.

The fill levels explained:
In the bottle neck (high fill to base neck) about 2 cm is perfect for wines.
Top and upper shoulder, ([very] top shoulder), approx. 3 cm is very good for very old wines.
Medium shoulder (mid shoulder), about 4 cm is only acceptable for rare top wines and in individual cases.
Everything below the red line should not be offered any more.

Wine rating

Do you have a 1996 vintage in your wine cellar and would you like to know how much it is worth?

Here are a few tips: in order to still have any value, the bottle must be leakproof. The wine must not be cloudy. It should be of good quality (not supermarket wine).

Search for the wine online without specifying the vintage. If it is a well-known winery, you will find the wine immediately and also the price you have to pay for the current vintage. If the current wine costs from EUR 20.00 upwards, that's a good sign.

The filling level is decisive for the value. Upper shoulder to base neck is required.

No products found.