1996 Clos du Marquis

Reverse osmosis was necessary in '98, said Michel Delon, as nearly 200 millimeters of rain fell during the harvest, which extended from September 23 through October 12 here. There an early austerity to the '98 Las Cases that has Delon describing this vintage as Pauillac in style; 1996, in comparison, is more classic St. Julien. Delon compares '98 to '94, another year that featured harvest-time rain and some not-quite-ripe tannins. But the tannins in '98 are a bit more successfully elaborated, he notes. Incidentally, Delon has been slowly reducing the percentage of new barrels used to make Leoville-Las Cases, down to 75% in '96 and 65% in '98.

Michel Delon has managed to make one of the few outstanding wines of the Medoc in 1997, in part by doing a ruthless reduction of his crop: a vendange verte in July and substantial eclaircissage, or crop thinning, until the end of August, followed by the declassification of 60% of the remaining crop into his second and third wines. The '97 Leoville-Las Cases has terrific depth and structure for the year and appears destined for a fairly slow evolution in bottle. Fans of this estate wines may be interested in Delon's current assessment of recent vintages here: Delon ranks the '96 as his greatest vintage to date. One step down is the 1986, followed by the '90 and '82.