This bordeaux style blend from Chateau St. Jean rarely disappoints.  Unfortunately, after the 1996 vintage was named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year for 1999, intererest in the wine skyrocketed, and so did it's price tag.  I was lucky enough to be present  at a recent off-line wine tasting with a group of Wine Spectator readers where somebody brought a bottle of the 1995.  It seemed to be at the peak of it's maturity, so I opted to start drinking my own few bottles from my cellar.  This has now given me the opportunity to try the wine twice over a one month stretch with bottles held in two different cellars.

I found both bottles to be outstanding and worthy of the praise so often given to this wine.  It is clearly at the peak of it's maturity, and I would not recommed holding it much longer.  The wine has an earthy bouquet, and is starting to lose the fruit on the nose.  Leathery notes and a little licorice are now the predominat elements of the bouquet.  There is still ample fruit on the palate, and the wine finishes well.  Although most of the people I have tasted the wine with have found it excellent, at least one individual detected trace vinegar from my bottle.  Although I could not appreciate any vinegar deterioration of the wine, it is certainly possible that some palates are mosre sensitve than mine to trace amounts of acetic acid, which do form in older wines as they start to oxidize, and this can give a vinegar-like aroma or taste (vinegar contains acetic acid).  Wines that do have acetic acid are not harmful to drink, I should point out.

Since I could not detect any vinegar aromas in the wine, I can only score the wine based on my palate, and no one elses.  I score the wine 4 stars.

 

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