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Beringer Bancroft Ranch Merlot 1996
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Beringer
Bancroft Ranch Merlot
1996
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Smaller-than-normal yields and especially warm weather in August produced highly concentrated grapes and the especially rich blueberry and blackberry aromas and flavors of this wine.
Bancroft Ranch Merlot has a quality I can only describe as all-around richness. Unlike some Merlots I've tasted, the wine from Bancroft has no `hole in the middle.' It delivers a consistent message from the first waft of its characteristic aromas through its long finish. I think this richness comes mostly from the concentrated blackberry and blueberry flavors but also partly from a kind of earthy quality typical of the vineyard. Underlying these flavors are more subtle notes of anise, tobacco and leather. I've found that these flavors become more pronounced as the wine ages and evolves, which makes me eager to monitor this vintage well into the next century.
-Ed Sbragia, Winemaster
Wine Advocate
The 1996 Merlot Bancroft Ranch was showing much better when I tasted it this year than it did eleven months earlier. The wine boasts a saturated purple color, as well as an exquisite nose of brandy-infused black cherries intermixed with melted chocolate. Dense and full-bodied, with striking sweetness and purity, this full-bodied, multi-layered Merlot has developed beautifully. Although it will benefit from another 4-5 years of bottle age, it can be drunk now, or cellared. It will keep for 15 years.
Score: 93.
—Robert Parker,
December
1998.
Wine Enthusiast
Complex, but tight and brooding. Dark earth, black plum, licorice, leather and smoke in the nose. Deep, full black-cherry and coffee flavors, but very subdued now. Emphasis on structure and intensity. Not an obvious wine, nor for cur-rent enjoyment, but a definite keeper. Needs 3 to 5 years.
Score: 92.
March
01,
2000.
All sizes are 750mL unless otherwise noted.
Vintages and ratings subject to change at any time.
All pricing and availability subject to change.
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