Wine Advisor
Canon La Gaffeliere 1996
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
An impressively extracted, opaque purple-colored wine, this flamboyant St.-Emilion offers intense aromas of jammy black cherries, melted chocolate, pain grille, and spice. Full-bodied, rich, and huge in the mouth, with layers of extract, glycerin, and tannin, this is an immense, exotic St.-Emilion that will require a half dozen years of cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2018.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The enviable performance of proprietor Stephan de Neipperg over the last decade should make him a candidate for one of my wine personalities of the year. The 1996 Canon-La-Gaffeliere is less exuberant and flattering to taste than such vintages as 1989, 1990, and 1995. Perhaps because of that, it will appeal more to traditionalists who often find Neipperg's wines too flamboyant. The 1996's opaque black-purple color suggests extraordinary concentration. The wine offers beautifully integrated sweet, toasty oak, a sweet, smoky, olive, blackcurrant, licorice, and mineral-scented nose, medium to full body, admirable integration of tannin, acidity, and alcohol, and a seamless, long, concentrated finish with the vintage's noteworthy tannin well-displayed. It will require 3-5 years of cellaring, and should easily keep through the first decade of the next century. I tasted this wine on four separate occasions during my trip to Bordeaux, rating it exactly the same on each occasion, with consistently laudatory comments.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The 1996 Canon-La-Gaffeliere is less exuberant and flattering to taste than such vintages as 1989, 1990, and 1995. Perhaps because of that, it will appeal more to traditionalists who often find Neipperg's wines too flamboyant. The 1996's opaque black-purple color suggests extraordinary concentration. The wine offers beautifully integrated sweet, toasty oak, a sweet, smoky, olive, black currant, licorice, and mineral-scented nose, medium to full body, admirable integration of tannin, acidity, and alcohol, and a seamless, long, concentrated finish with the vintage's noteworthy tannin well-displayed. It will require 3-5 years of cellaring, and should easily keep through the first decade of the next century. I tasted this wine on four separate occasions during my trip to Bordeaux, rating it exactly the same on each occasion, with consistently laudatory comments. Last tasted 11/97
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
This is one of St.-Emilion's most impressively constituted and expressive wines. From its saturated purple color, to its soaring aromatics (pain grille, jammy black fruits, chocolate, roasted coffee, and smoke), this full-bodied, meaty, chewy, powerful wine is loaded with extract, sweet tannin for the vintage, and possesses a layered, multidimensional finish. It should continue to improve for a decade, and drink well for 15-20 years. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2020.
About the Producer
Château Canon La Gaffelière is a well-regarded Premier Grand Cru Classé wine estate in the Saint-Émilion region of northeastern Bordeaux. The château is known for the elegance and finesse of its wines as much as it is for its owner: Count Stephan von Neipperg. The estate and château lies just south of Saint-Émilion town and was promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé 2012. Canon La Gaffelière's 19.5-hectare (48-acre) vineyard is a mix of clay-limestone and clay-sand soils, with predominantly sandy topsoils. These characteristics are well-suited to the grape varieties planted here with the vineyards composed of 55 percent Merlot, 40 percent Cabernet Franc and 5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. At harvest, the grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed without crushing, then fermented in temperature-controlled wooden vats. They are then aged in mostly new oak barrels for up to 20 months. The Canon La Gaffelière estate began as two separate holdings in the 19th Century: Canon Boitard and La Gaffelière Boitard. They were eventually combined, and then acquired by the Von Neipperg family in 1971. Current proprietor Count Stephan von Neipperg also owns La Mondotte, Clos de L'Oratoire and Château Peyreau in Saint-Émilion, plus a handful of other estates around Bordeaux.
1971(1)1981(1)1982(1)1990(1)
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