1996 Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes

"With the high sugars and great ripeness of the grapes, we expected to have wines with tough tannins," said Bruno Clair. "But the tannins in fact are quite fat, and there nothing hard about the wines at all; 1997 is certainly a vin de garde but it no monster." According to cellarmaster Philippe Brun, the cuvaison was shorter in '97, as there were a lot of yeasts on the grape skins and the fermentations started quickly (the estate does nothing to prevent the fermentation from starting). The malos were tumultuous, and early, but the wines remained on their lees through the winter and have taken on more complexity during elevage (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)

"The '95s have more color, more density, thicker skins," says cellarmaster Philippe Brun. "It will be necessary to put them in the cellar and forget them, like the '88s." He adds that the '96s, with their higher grape sugars and lower pHs, will be for drinking earlier. I was unimpressed by a couple of the lower-level '96s (though, following late malos, some wines had not yet been racked), but at the top levels there are several potentially outstanding wines at this address. The best '95s are superb. All the wines reviewed below were bottled without fining or filtration; Clair style makes few concessions to current tastes for sweet new oak and early appeal but have a history of developing well in bottle. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL)