best wine of 1996

Non-vintage champagne may increasingly be regarded as a commodity to lure bargain hunters into unfamiliar supermarkets or reward assiduous salespersons, but vintage-dated champagne is different. By any standards it is a treat, the focus of interest for champagne connoisseurs, and the wine on which a disproportionate amount of care is lavished by winemakers in the Champagne region in north-east France. Connoisseurs of vintage champagne, champagnes made exclusively from grapes grown in a single growing season, are entering a golden period when they can pick and choose between two distinctly superior years, 1995 and 1996. Although some good vintage champagnes carry one of the years 1991-1994 inclusive (Bollinger 1992 was beautifully creamy and approachable the other day), things have generally been rather lean for lovers of vintage champagne since 1989 and 1990 vintage champagnes were widely available. As with the earlier pair, it is the later year that is usually the more impressive. Just as 1990s tended to have more guts and depth than 1989s, so it is with 1996 compared with 1995, although there are some fine 1995s currently on sale.

What was so extraordinary about the 1996 vintage in Champagne was that not only were the grapes exceptionally high in flavour and ripeness, they also managed to retain admirably high levels of acidity, the component that gives champagne its refreshment value and long life. Not since 1955 had such high levels of both acidity and grape sugars (enough to make base wines of nearly 11 per cent alcohol) been recorded in Champagne. The grapes were by no means as ripe in 1995, resulting in slightly more austere, less well balanced wines than in the succeeding year, but Chardonnay did particularly well, so 1995 Blanc de Blancs should, in theory at least, be worth looking out for. I recently tasted 51 current vintage-dated offerings from virtually all the well known producers and many of the more obscure - which provided a great opportunity to compare 1995s and 1996s. My main conclusion was that 1996 really is a great, great year for champagne, full of bounce and depth. It may have just as much or more acidity than the 1995, but it has so much more fruit that the 1996s are generally more approachable than the 1995s which need a bit more time in bottle for their much more obvious high levels of green acidity to soften.

Inconveniently, however, most champagne producers release their wines in strict chronological order. (An admirable exception is luxury house Krug which launched its fruity 1989 before the much more austere 1988; it is years away from releasing its 1996 and 1995.) What was particularly exciting about this tasting was the number of relatively reasonably priced wines that showed well. Perhaps the greatest bargain for British wine buyers is the 1996 from the modest house of H Blin in the Marne Valley. It is currently on sale at Oddbins for £18.99 but from Monday until 26 May there is a discount of 20 per cent on any two-bottle purchase, bringing the per-bottle price down to a ridiculously low £15.19. Larmandier-Bernier's Cramant Grand Cru 1996 Vieilles Vignes is wonderfully dry and already shows an impressive spread of flavours (although it will be even better in a year or two). Vine Trail of Bristol (tel 0117 921 1770) which specialises in wines from small French domaines offers it at £18.75 a bottle.

In the US, Garagiste of Seattle (tel 888 264 0053) offer it at $31.98 according to WineSearcher. Philippe Brugnon is another small-scale family champagne producer, based on the Montagne de Reims. His 1996 is broad and floral, very dense and satin-textured.
best wine bottle photographyIt is about £19.99 a bottle from the Oxford Wine Company of Lechlade (tel 01367 253990) and Millets Farm, Frilford Heath near Abingdon (tel 01865 301144);
best place for a glass of wine in londonChateau Vintners of London, SW3 (tel 020 7376 8828);
buy wine online ship to texasand Village Wines of Bexley (tel 01322 558772) who have it at just £17.59 as part of a mixed dozen. Wine-buyers resident in Switzerland should be able to find a relative bargain in René Geoffroy's dramatically aromatic Premier Cru 1996 which, according to WineSearcher, is available for just 39 Swiss francs from Veni, Vino, Vici 062 723 0979.

Its UK importers François Domange of London, N5 (tel 020 7354 1994) ask much more, £162 for six bottles. Pierre Gimmonet's Blanc de Blancs Gastronome 1996 is another big, bold treat that is no longer available in the UK where Oddbins are already selling the 1997, but it is available at $28 from D & M Wines and Liquors of San Francisco (tel 800 637 0292). Of the few bigger houses which have already moved on to the 1996 vintage, Perrier Jouêt's vivacious bottling and Taittinger's creamier version were showing particularly well. Most famous names are still offering their 1995s of which the best, if still youthful, examples in this tasting came from Bollinger, Pol Roger and Louis Roederer. For full tasting notes and assessments of these 51 champagnes, see purple pages. For the video game expansion, see The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine. Blood and Wine is a 1996 neo-noir thriller directed by Bob Rafelson from a screenplay written by Nick Villiers and Alison Cross. It features Jack Nicholson, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Judy Davis and Michael Caine.

Rafelson has stated that the film forms the final part of his unofficial trilogy with Nicholson, with whom he made Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens in the 1970s. Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) is a wine merchant living in Miami who has distanced himself from his alcoholic wife Suzanne (Judy Davis) with his philandering, and from his stepson Jason (Stephen Dorff) with his indifference. Alex is heavily in debt, and hatches a plan to steal a valuable diamond necklace from the house of his clients, the Reese family, where his Cuban mistress Gabriela (Jennifer Lopez) works. He cases the house during a wine delivery with Jason, who works in Alex's business, although not happily. Jason becomes attracted to Gabriela, unaware of her relationship with his father. On the day of the heist, Alex and his safe-cracker partner Victor (Michael Caine) arrive at the house under the pretense that the Reeses' wine cellar needs repairs, otherwise their wine will be ruined. Gabriela was supposed to let them in, but she was fired the day before.

Fortunately, Alex had cultivated a relationship with the security guard and is able to convince him to admit them. Victor sends Alex and the guard off on an errand while he works on the safe, but a second guard becomes suspicious, although Victor is able to complete the job before being discovered. The pair decide that Alex will pawn the necklace in New York City, and he invites Gabriela to go with him. As he is packing, Suzanne chances upon the airline tickets for him and Gabriela and immediately realizes he is having another affair. The two of them get into a physical alteration and she knocks him out. Deciding to leave him, she empties out his suitcase, where he has hidden the necklace, and uses it for her own clothes. Jason walks in and the two of them flee to the Florida Keys. Upon arriving, they discover the necklace, but Suzanne doesn't want to keep it, even after Jason has it appraised, discovering it is worth $1 million. Jason also visits Gabriela back in Miami, giving her the phone number of the place they are staying at.

Victor and Alex meet with Jason's friend Henry (Harold Perrineau). Alex assaults Henry in an attempt to learn Jason's whereabouts, but Henry doesn't know anything. The pair contact various jewelers to be on the lookout for the necklace and get a report from the jeweler who gave Jason the appraisal. Arriving in Key Largo, Victor pretends to flirt with Suzanne, but Jason, who has gotten a description of Henry's assailant, realizes who Victor is and after a fight, escapes with his mother in their car. Victor and Alex give chase and cause an accident that kills Suzanne. Although injured, Jason discharges himself from the hospital and returns to Miami to fight with his father, only to find Gabriela in Alex's bed. After a brief argument, they reconcile. Alex returns home to find both Jason and Gabriela there and he accuses them of having sex. Meanwhile, Victor has been following Jason and confronts him alone. Jason convinces him that he has returned the necklace to Alex, although he has done no such thing.

Victor then goes to Alex's house. The two of them fight and Victor is killed. Later, Gabriela visits Jason, and he shows her the necklace. The next day, she calls Alex to tell him its location. They arrive at Jason's boat and Alex and Jason fight, during which time Alex is critically injured. Gabriela leaves the necklace with him as she runs away. With an ambulance on the way, Alex realizes he has no choice but to dispose of the evidence and throws the necklace into the ocean. British producer Jeremy Thomas was attracted to work with Rafelson due to what he perceived as the director's European sensibilities. It was a different experience for me, because growing up as an independent producer it was difficult to interact with a corporate system. But then I got this screenplay which had Jack Nicholson attached to it and Bob Rafelson, who I knew quite well, and so I thought, I had never gone near a genre-type of film and so maybe I will try some noir-ish sort of film, set in Miami, which is the flavour of Hollywood, and see if we can do it.

It was certainly an incredible cast, and I sold the film to 20th Century Fox, and I had a moment of flirtation with a studio movie type of film. I am very fond of the film. Blood and Wine was shot in Miami, South Florida and the Florida Keys, including some scenes at the Caribbean Club in Key Largo.[6] Alex’s family home is located in the Coral Gables/Pinecrest area. Gabriela is shown to live in Little Havana. The Reeses live in Millionaire’s Row in Miami Beach. Their house is next to Indian Creek and has a view of Collins Avenue. Jason’s fishing boat is anchored in the Miami River, near Downtown Miami. Before the dance scene between Alex and Gabriela, we see a view of Southeast Financial Center in Downtown Miami. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 61% of 31 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.1/10.[7] David Rooney of Variety called it "an amusingly caustic, straight-up serving of film noir staples spiced with star charisma".