Chateau Branaire-Ducru Saint-Julien 1996 NO20231115 She cold extracts the botanicals

She cold extracts the botanicals in water over 4-6 weeks and blends the finished product to create a balanced beverage with no added sweeteners

Its aroma is one of toasted oak mixed with vanilla bean

The 1985 Ravignan Bas-Armagnac is full bodied

and an herbal and a taste of a ripe fruit finish

Chateau Branaire-Ducru Saint-Julien 1996 NO20231115 She cold extracts the botanicalsBranaire Ducru has long been the connoisseur's Saint Julien Fourth Growth pricing, classical winemaking, no flash. The 1996 vintage is now thirty years old and squarely in mature territory, made in one of those classic cool vintage years where ripe Cabernet held onto bracing Left Bank acidity. The result is everything you'd want from a fully resolved Mdoc: cedar, tobacco, dried red and black fruit, leather, and that beam of acidity keeping it lively.