La Mondotte 1996

An amazing wine, the 1996 La Mondotte is amazing for both its appellation and the vintage, revealing a remarkable level of richness, profound concentration, and intergrated tannin. The thick purple color suggests a wine of extraordinary extract and richness. This super-concentrated wine offers a spectacular nose of roasted coffee, licorice, blueberries, and black currants intermixed with smoky new oak. It possesse full body, multidimensional, layered personality with extraordinary depth of fruit, a seamless texture, amazing viscosity, and a long, 45-second finish. The tannin is sweet and well intergrated. A dry, vintage Port! This blockbuster St.-Emilion should be at its best between 2006-2025. Last tasted, 1/03.

One of the vintage's most extraordinary wines, the 1996 La Mondotte (800 cases made primarily from a 30-year old parcel of Merlot vines planted on the hillside between La Tertre Roteboeuf and Canon La Gaffeliere) is the dream-child of Comte Stephan de Neipperg has done an exceptional job elevating the quality of Canon-La-Gaffeliere, and more recently Clos de l'Oratoire, both impressive St Emilions. Retasting this wine in November, 1997, confirmed my original estimation. It is unquestionably one of the superstars of the 1996 vintage. The wine is atypically powerful and unctuously structured, especially for a 1996 right bank offering. It boasts an opaque ruby/purple color, as well as celestial aromas of jammy black fruits, truffles, licorice, coffee, and smoky new noak. In the mouth, the wine is full-bodied and seamless, with gorgeously integrated acidity, alcohol, and tannin. Still remarkably thick, layered, and extravagantly rich, this wine possesses considerable tannic clout in the blockbuster finish. If it continues to improve as it did between spring and late fall, it may merit an even higher rating.