1996 in champagne. what happened?

by Edouard Bourgeois
November 21, 2025

Ratings for 1996 often use words like "exceptional" and "grandiose," with some comparisons to 1928. What made 1996 objectively unique was the high average potential alcohol (10.3%) combined with high total acidity (10g/litre)—figures rarely seen together. As Charles Philipponnat noted, this is a significant jump from the 9.3% potential alcohol common forty years prior.

Acidity and potential alcohol work together for balance, but typically, when one is high, the other is low. In 1996, both figures were high. Bruno Paillard called it a 'naughty boy' vintage due to its unpredictable nature and the anxiety it caused producers while waiting for acidity levels to drop. However, the result for those with patience is "fantastic."

While acidity is key for aging, the true test is time. Over two decades later, the remaining 1996 bottles reveal which producers succeeded. The best examples are still complex and alluring, where the high acidity is balanced by a wide range of aromas, from brioche to stone fruit. Unfortunately, some other bottlings show only residual acidity, resulting in unbalanced and tart wines.

I recall opening a glorious bottle of 1996 Cristal for my son's birth seven years ago; the wine was still vibrant and charged.

Another fabulous example was made by Krug. As Olivier Krug said, "It’s a year where a good house or a good winemaker will make a good wine... It’s a tricky vintage." Other industry professionals have shared similar sentiments, noting that some vintners either opted out of making a vintage bottling or failed to achieve balance, resulting in wines that are already clumsy or tired.

The 1996 vintage often draws comparisons to its predecessor, 1995. These were the last two great Champagne vintages following the 1988, 1989, and 1990 trio. The 1996s are powerful wines; the best combine weight from ripeness with tension from acidity, providing the interest, complexity, and structure needed for long-term aging.

Interestingly, more houses released 1995 as a vintage Champagne than 1996, with a ratio of roughly 60% (1995) to 40% (1996).

Given its unpredictability, the safest bet for 1996 Champagne remains to go with producers you trust.

While looking for pictures of 1996 Champagne on my IPhone, I also found several other wines from various regions where the 1996 vintage truly shone, as seen in images below;jbgories

Edouard Bourgeois 7/14/21 Edouard Bourgeois 7/14/21

News from the Vineyard

Trapping CO2 For a Cleaner Wine Industry

by Edouard (from an article by sevenfifty)

7/14/21

Trapping CO2 For a Cleaner Wine Industry

July 14, 2021
by Edouard Bourgeois

The wine industry is not often portrayed as a major pollutant and distractor of earth’s ecological balance. However, even organic, biodynamic and the sometimes polarizing “natural” wine producers cannot be entirely “green”, as Vincent Dauvissat himself reminded me on a recent trip to Chablis. “We all are polluters” he declared. From my own small experience of working in a renowned winery in Beaujolais, I remember the colossal quantities of water we would use to constantly clean the equipment, the price to pay for not using synthetic cleaning chemicals, which can almost seem ironic.

But amazing people follow amazing ideas, like our friend Diana Seysses of Domaine Dujac in Burgundy and Snowden Vineyards in California. Diana was featured in a recent, eye-opening article on SevenFiftyDaily this week where she talks about capturing the CO2 naturally produced by alcoholic fermentation and re-using it. After experiencing the wildfires of California at her family estate and then the historical frost episode of this past April in Burgundy, she found even more motivation to develop the strategy of carbon capture. “During vinification each year, winery buildings are full of pure, clean carbon dioxide—and we just blow it out the windows. I believe the ventilation of our wineries is a wasted opportunity” she explains.

This is a great article where Diana explains her journey in trying to make the process of carbon capture work. The pros and cons of such a process are exposed with raw humility but unbreakable passion.

Read the article on SevenFiftyDaily here