The vintage

1996

Cabernet and Champagne at their best

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The 1996 vintage, rated

Cabernet and Champagne at their best

In 2026 a bottle from 1996 marks a 30th birthday or anniversary

The vintage

Excellent · 4/5

Excellent in the Medoc, where Cabernet Sauvignon ripened slowly and made tight, high-acid wines that have taken thirty years to unfurl - Latour, Leoville Las Cases and Pichon Lalande are all superb. The Right Bank had rain on its Merlot and sits a clear step behind. Champagne 1996 is celebrated for a rare combination of ripeness and acidity, and Barolo 1996 is one of the great classical Piedmont vintages.

What we would buy, and why

Left Bank, Champagne or Barolo are the three good answers, and Right Bank 1996 is where the disappointments hide. If the bottle is likely to be opened on the night it is given, choose the mature Left Bank claret or the Champagne. A 1996 Barolo still feels young and wants a decanter and a couple of hours, which is a fine thing to explain in the card but a poor surprise at the table.

1996 in the world

Dolly the sheep was born on 5 July at the Roslin Institute outside Edinburgh, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. That summer England hosted Euro 96 and "Three Lions" was sung everywhere.

Best bets for 1996

  • Chateau Leoville Las Cases 1996, St-Julien - one of the wines of the vintage, 450-650 euro
  • Chateau Langoa Barton 1996 - the same family and cellar for far less, 120-170 euro
  • Produttori del Barbaresco Riserva 1996 - 180-260 euro
  • Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 1996 - 300-400 euro

How we grade a bottle

Fill level, label, capsule and cork, then provenance. Every bottle is checked by hand by people who have handled thousands of old bottles, and we write down the flaws as well as the good news. What the fill levels mean · How to choose a birth-year wine

Real people, not a chatbot

Ask a person about this year

The people who answer are the same people who check and pack the bottles. Ask for photographs, a condition report or advice on a year and you get a straight answer from the ANNO team, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 CET.