Full red-ruby color. Youthful aromas of spicy cherry and sweet leather. Bright, pure and firmly structured; rather backward for this wine but offers plenty of sweetness. Finishes with substantial but sweet tannins and very good persistence. Serious second wine.

The 1996 Bahans-Haut-Brion (Haut-Brion's second wine) showed every bit as well as it did prior to bottling. The wine is an atypically powerful, rich, tobacco and black fruit-scented wine that is much less forward than normal, but rich, with a nose that is unmistakably Haut-Brion-like. It reveals roasted herbs, scorched earth, and sweet black fruits in both its aromas and flavors. This tannic, structured Bahans will be at its finest between 2002-2012.

36% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon. Looks the most youthful of the Haut-Brion 1996 reds. Very deep vibrant ruby with a very narrow rim of evolution. Intense, very ripe nose. Focused and in the idiom of 1996. Still quite firm, with great confident impact on the palate. Still very much work in progress. Beautiful balance. Nothing remotely pushy or flashy. Lots of Cabernet Sauvignon cassis with a little bit of prunes underneath. 6.7% press wine apparently – not much – but it tastes as though there may have been more. Probably needs decanting. (JR)