Ah another 1996!
Among all the Bordeaux Vintages from the last three decades, this is one that has been the biggest surprise of a vintage. Almost everything that came out of the vintage didn't get the due recognition when the vintage was first released.
Around the 20th anniversary mark, sometime in 2016 was when the wine aficionados started going back to their cellars to find the 1996s starting to shine so bright, that they were oveshadowing some of the best known vintages of this century, namely the 2000s and 2005s when the story really changed. So much that it is now hard to find well priced 1996 bottles across most well loved estates.
But don't take my word for it. Head over to Vivino where the wine has almost 300 reviews rating the 1996 4 or 5 stars with an average star rating of 4.1.
https://www.vivino.com/SG/en/chateau-du-tertre-margaux-grand-cru-classe/w/85917?year=1996&price_id=32029834
The estate & Wine
The 54-hectare Chateau du Tertre vineyard is planted to 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. This marks a major change in the vineyard with less Cabernet Sauvignon and more Merlot.
The du Tertre vineyard is planted in one large single block of vines. This is one of the largest single blocks of vines in Margaux, as well as in all of the Medoc.
It is important to note that their vineyard is also one of the few estates that is the same size today, as it was at the time of the 1855 Classification of the Medoc where it acheived the 5th growth classification.
The terroir is mostly gravel, with some sand soils on two, gentle, sloping hills. The elevation close to the chateau graduates up to 27 meters, making it one of the highest peaks in the Margaux appellation. The location for much of the vineyard is situated close to a forest, which produces a slightly cooler, micro-climate.
The cooler ambient temperature adds more freshness to the wines. Geographically, they are next to their sister property, Chateau Giscours. In fact, only a small stream separates the two vineyards. Their best parcels are located just behind the chateau, and as well as on the peaks of their gravel hills.
The owners of Chateau Calon Segur acquired the estate in 1961 and made significant investment in the estate to transform and restore its former glory. The estate was subsequently sold to the owners of Chateau Giscours following the death of Philippe Gasqueton in 1995. The Jelgersma family, already fairly established further invested in the estate until 2021 when it was sold to a private consortium.
Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/bordeaux-wine-producer-profiles/bordeaux/margaux/du-tertre/
Tasting Notes & Reviews:
Review courtesy: The Wine Doctor:
CHÂTEAU DU TERTRE 1996At occasional intervals this year I have been pulling various bottles of 1996 Bordeaux from my cellar for drinking. This is easier said than done, as gaining access to my cellar currently requires taking a running jump and launching myself head-first over the many boxes piled almost roof-high just behind the door. Each box-leaping Fosbury Flops is a high-risk activity, but these are risks I am prepared to take. You see, I am nothing if not dedicated to the quality of my drinking.
My Bordeaux drinking tends to focus on ‘real’ Bordeaux that must at one point in its life have seemed affordable, which means that super-expensive first growths are largely banished, and super-seconds are increasingly rare. Happily with a variety of wines from the 1996 vintage in the cellar this isn’t a major drawback. This is a wonderful vintage for left-bank Bordeaux, one which at harvest time had the technical directors and their teams, from the northerly reaches of St Estèphe and the Médoc all the way down to Margaux and the various Haut-Médoc communes that skirt the northern suburbs of the city, twitching with excited anticipation. Those who can remember the harvest do so fondly, recalling clean and vibrant flavours within the fruit and the deliciously ripe tannins.
There is plenty of bias in Bordeaux (as if you didn’t know). Only a few weeks ago, at the annual Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting of the 2014 vintage, Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier and current president told the attendees (I am paraphrasing – I am sorry I didn’t note down his exact words), “2014 was a great vintage, 2015 is another great vintage, 2016 is a great vintage in the making”. It’s what the gathered proprietors want to hear of course, an example of confirmation bias, but on the side of consumers and critics nobody buys into such early and sweeping predictions. Nevertheless, looking back to 1996, this is one vintage where the early confidence in the vintage has been borne out with time. And this has long been my favourite vintage for current drinking, bearing in mind that most of the decent vintages after 2000 are still too young for my palate (although 2001 is looking good, and I need to check out 2000 again soon), and my favourite vintages from the 1980s don’t feature that strongly in my cellar any more. The crazy thing is, some 1996 prices (including that of Château du Tertre) compare favourably to some younger vintages such as 2009 and 2010.
And so to the 1996 from Château du Tertre. I first encountered this at a 1996 blind tasting when it was still very young (and I was a little younger too!), and I liked it enough to buy a few bottles. In truth I liked all the wines, but found many of those I liked beyond my meagre means at the time, and so I found myself buying those I felt I could afford, i.e. those which meant I didn’t have to default on the mortgage payments on the house I had just bought, and which left me with enough sous to clothe and feed my children. I know, I know, I just didn’t have my priorities right in those days. Never mind. At twenty years of age, this wine now has a confident appearance, with a dark core, and only a thin oxblood rim. It has a gorgeously evolved nose, rather further on than the appearance in the glass would suggest, complex and convincing. There are scents of cooked blackcurrant, admittedly with a calcareous oyster-shell freshness which I tend to find in wines older than this, and tinges of smoky black pepper, rosemary and green olive. On the palate I sense the coolness and freshness of slate, with cherry stone and blackcurrant, pebbles and pepper, charged from beneath with lots of fresh, acid-driven tension. It is long, precise, impressive, energetic and yet it feels largely resolved. Despite the fact the tannins have faded, the palate remains firm, bright and well formed, a feature I admire very much and which seems to go with the vintage. Ultimately, this is a joy to drink, and yet there is – if you have any tucked away – seemingly no rush here. 17/20 (7/11/16), TheWineDoctor
"A sleeper. Du Tertre 's 1996 exhibits a black ruby/purple color, a sweet black fruit-scented nose, medium to full body, well-integrated tannin, and fine purity and depth. This wine should age nicely, yet have a degree of accessibility young." 90/100 Robert Parker
Among all the Bordeaux Vintages from the last three decades, this is one that has been the biggest surprise of a vintage. Almost everything that came out of the vintage didn't get the due recognition when the vintage was first released.
Around the 20th anniversary mark, sometime in 2016 was when the wine aficionados started going back to their cellars to find the 1996s starting to shine so bright, that they were oveshadowing some of the best known vintages of this century, namely the 2000s and 2005s when the story really changed. So much that it is now hard to find well priced 1996 bottles across most well loved estates.
But don't take my word for it. Head over to Vivino where the wine has almost 300 reviews rating the 1996 4 or 5 stars with an average star rating of 4.1.
https://www.vivino.com/SG/en/chateau-du-tertre-margaux-grand-cru-classe/w/85917?year=1996&price_id=32029834
The estate & Wine
The 54-hectare Chateau du Tertre vineyard is planted to 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. This marks a major change in the vineyard with less Cabernet Sauvignon and more Merlot.
The du Tertre vineyard is planted in one large single block of vines. This is one of the largest single blocks of vines in Margaux, as well as in all of the Medoc.
It is important to note that their vineyard is also one of the few estates that is the same size today, as it was at the time of the 1855 Classification of the Medoc where it acheived the 5th growth classification.
The terroir is mostly gravel, with some sand soils on two, gentle, sloping hills. The elevation close to the chateau graduates up to 27 meters, making it one of the highest peaks in the Margaux appellation. The location for much of the vineyard is situated close to a forest, which produces a slightly cooler, micro-climate.
The cooler ambient temperature adds more freshness to the wines. Geographically, they are next to their sister property, Chateau Giscours. In fact, only a small stream separates the two vineyards. Their best parcels are located just behind the chateau, and as well as on the peaks of their gravel hills.
The owners of Chateau Calon Segur acquired the estate in 1961 and made significant investment in the estate to transform and restore its former glory. The estate was subsequently sold to the owners of Chateau Giscours following the death of Philippe Gasqueton in 1995. The Jelgersma family, already fairly established further invested in the estate until 2021 when it was sold to a private consortium.
Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/bordeaux-wine-producer-profiles/bordeaux/margaux/du-tertre/
Tasting Notes & Reviews:
Review courtesy: The Wine Doctor:
CHÂTEAU DU TERTRE 1996At occasional intervals this year I have been pulling various bottles of 1996 Bordeaux from my cellar for drinking. This is easier said than done, as gaining access to my cellar currently requires taking a running jump and launching myself head-first over the many boxes piled almost roof-high just behind the door. Each box-leaping Fosbury Flops is a high-risk activity, but these are risks I am prepared to take. You see, I am nothing if not dedicated to the quality of my drinking.
My Bordeaux drinking tends to focus on ‘real’ Bordeaux that must at one point in its life have seemed affordable, which means that super-expensive first growths are largely banished, and super-seconds are increasingly rare. Happily with a variety of wines from the 1996 vintage in the cellar this isn’t a major drawback. This is a wonderful vintage for left-bank Bordeaux, one which at harvest time had the technical directors and their teams, from the northerly reaches of St Estèphe and the Médoc all the way down to Margaux and the various Haut-Médoc communes that skirt the northern suburbs of the city, twitching with excited anticipation. Those who can remember the harvest do so fondly, recalling clean and vibrant flavours within the fruit and the deliciously ripe tannins.
There is plenty of bias in Bordeaux (as if you didn’t know). Only a few weeks ago, at the annual Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tasting of the 2014 vintage, Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier and current president told the attendees (I am paraphrasing – I am sorry I didn’t note down his exact words), “2014 was a great vintage, 2015 is another great vintage, 2016 is a great vintage in the making”. It’s what the gathered proprietors want to hear of course, an example of confirmation bias, but on the side of consumers and critics nobody buys into such early and sweeping predictions. Nevertheless, looking back to 1996, this is one vintage where the early confidence in the vintage has been borne out with time. And this has long been my favourite vintage for current drinking, bearing in mind that most of the decent vintages after 2000 are still too young for my palate (although 2001 is looking good, and I need to check out 2000 again soon), and my favourite vintages from the 1980s don’t feature that strongly in my cellar any more. The crazy thing is, some 1996 prices (including that of Château du Tertre) compare favourably to some younger vintages such as 2009 and 2010.
And so to the 1996 from Château du Tertre. I first encountered this at a 1996 blind tasting when it was still very young (and I was a little younger too!), and I liked it enough to buy a few bottles. In truth I liked all the wines, but found many of those I liked beyond my meagre means at the time, and so I found myself buying those I felt I could afford, i.e. those which meant I didn’t have to default on the mortgage payments on the house I had just bought, and which left me with enough sous to clothe and feed my children. I know, I know, I just didn’t have my priorities right in those days. Never mind. At twenty years of age, this wine now has a confident appearance, with a dark core, and only a thin oxblood rim. It has a gorgeously evolved nose, rather further on than the appearance in the glass would suggest, complex and convincing. There are scents of cooked blackcurrant, admittedly with a calcareous oyster-shell freshness which I tend to find in wines older than this, and tinges of smoky black pepper, rosemary and green olive. On the palate I sense the coolness and freshness of slate, with cherry stone and blackcurrant, pebbles and pepper, charged from beneath with lots of fresh, acid-driven tension. It is long, precise, impressive, energetic and yet it feels largely resolved. Despite the fact the tannins have faded, the palate remains firm, bright and well formed, a feature I admire very much and which seems to go with the vintage. Ultimately, this is a joy to drink, and yet there is – if you have any tucked away – seemingly no rush here. 17/20 (7/11/16), TheWineDoctor
"A sleeper. Du Tertre 's 1996 exhibits a black ruby/purple color, a sweet black fruit-scented nose, medium to full body, well-integrated tannin, and fine purity and depth. This wine should age nicely, yet have a degree of accessibility young." 90/100 Robert Parker