Ratings & Tasting Notes:

No critic scores specific to this exact bottling and vintage were found at the time this listing was created.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Bouscaut sits at Cadaujac, at the southern end of Pessac-Léognan, and is one of the rare Bordeaux estates classified for both its red and its white wine in the 1959 Graves classification. Its terroir is unusual for the region: clay over limestone beneath the expected gravel, a combination that suits Merlot particularly well and gives the red wine its fleshy core. That Merlot is joined by Cabernet Sauvignon for structure and a small proportion of Malbec, an old Bordeaux variety now seldom seen, which lends a distinct spiciness. The modern era began in 1979, when Lucien Lurton acquired the property; since 1992 it has been in the hands of his daughter Sophie Lurton and her husband Laurent Cogombles, who have steadily rebuilt the estate’s standing among the classified growths of Graves.

1996 is a classic Bordeaux vintage, remembered for a cool, dry end to the season that preserved acidity and produced firmly structured wines built for the long term rather than for early pleasure. Bouscaut’s clay-limestone base gave the fruit the flesh to balance that structure. Thirty years on, expect a wine fully into its tertiary phase: garnet at the core with brick at the rim, the cassis and plum of youth now folded into cedar, tobacco, graphite and the smoky, earthy note that marks good Graves. Tannins resolved, acidity intact. Give it an hour in a decanter and serve it with something substantial.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.

Outstanding condition.