A superb botritys vintage with an airy character.
“Not far from Climens, on an area that, this year, will be close to 4 hectares, a couple of wine nuts, Mireille and Philippe, who are incredibly demanding in the vineyard as well as in the cellar, make many winegrowers pale by releasing extremely neat vintages. While the 95 is hailed everywhere, we fell in love with the grace, toast, liveliness and sumptuous botrytis of the 96. » Saveurs N°85. M. Smith, C. Flacelière
The finesse, aromatic purity and depth of taste of the difficult 1994 vintage are astounding, the 1995 is already a milestone and the 1996 is close to the anthology. The prices are high, but not speculative, and completely justified. » Best wines of the 2000 Classification: Cru Barréjats Sauternes 1994 & 1996 The Ranking of the Best Wines of France. Bettane & Desseauve (1999-2003)
The 1996 vintage as seen by Mireille Daret:
1996: In June, the conditions are ideal for the vines to bloom in groups, under a magnificent and warm sun, up to 34°C, explaining the subsequent abundance of the harvest. Summer without any particularity, hot, a few thunderstorms. The month of September was cold and dry for the first two weeks, but ripening progressed further before conditions were favourable to the development of botrytis during the last fortnight, which was rainy. Botrytization is very slow and continuous throughout the month of October, under beautiful dry weather.
The harvest is therefore spread out from 3 to 31 October: Every day we sorted, grain by grain, relentlessly, with 14 people on 2.7 hectares. Exceptional performance, it’s all relative… 17 hl/ha. The exotic aromas are superb on our musts, and when the winemaker harvests such beautiful fruit, the vinification must have only one goal: to preserve this aromatic expression to bottle only fruit…
The hydraulic vertical pressing allows us to extract without crushing, in three very slow presses until noon the next day, all the sugars and aromas trapped in these candied Botrytis grapes. From then on, everything is decided: the quality of the Cru Barréjats, an expression of the terroir, the fruit and the Botrytis, can be tasted in the musts that flow from the press!
Light cold settling, fermentation in 100% new barrels (Mercier, Seguin Moreau, Vicard), in a cellar whose temperature we control, cessation of cold fermentation which allows us to reduce the addition of sulphur, tracing of the barrels in the cellar in order to preserve their identity for as long as possible… Thus, we chose to bottle separately, 3 barrels, the highest potential of the harvest, 25°, which fermented very slowly and reached a different balance from the Cru Barréjats (14° + 90 g) in the end: 13.5° + 190 g of residual sugars… Not chaptalized of course!
The long but very simple ageing, 32 months in new barrels – a wonderful tool for vinification and not for flavouring – a minimum of SO2 and strict hygiene conditions during each annual racking means that the 1996 Cru Barréjats was free of viable yeasts and bacteria before bottling. As with the 1995 Cru Barréjats, the originality of the vinification of the 1996 Cru Barréjats is there: a single very loose filtration during bottling. The 1996 Cru Barréjats thus retains all its fruit, all its richness and its complexity.
On July 1, 1999, we bottled the 1996 Cru Barréjats: 3,500 bottles, 2,800 50cl and 100 magnums, and the Insoumise de Barréjats: 1000 50cl.
