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750ml - Case of 3
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I have drunk this a half dozen times in the last six months and it always amazes me. The Recently Disgorged Bolly is...
WE
97
JS
97
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750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $494.80
Even richer than the brilliant 1990, the 1996 is still tightly wound, but reveals tremendous aromatic intensity,...
WA
98
BH
97
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750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $669.33
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This shows amazing freshness and depth of fruit while remaining agile and very clean. Full body, dense and layered on...
JS
100
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99
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The 1996 Dom Pérignon P2 is another absolutely stellar Champagne. When it was first release, the 1996 was painfully...
VM
97
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95
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750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $226.86
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1.5Ltr - Case of 3
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A sculpted Champagne, with a steely backbone of acidity swathed in a fine and silky texture, offering rich flavors of...
WS
97
JD
96
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1.5Ltr - 1 Bottle
Bottle: $582.02 $619.17
The 1996 Brut Cuvee des Enchanteleurs is one of the softer, more forward 1996s readers are likely to come across....
WA
92
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750ml - Case of 6
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It's hard to imagine how a wine of this power can sustain perfect balance What is now a more nonchalant intensity in...
W&S
100
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99
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THE EYE: A pale, translucent gold, with radiant clarity and subtle glints of apple green. THE NOSE: Fresh and...
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750ml - Case of 6
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Rated 99 - Maturing into a medium golden color, the 1996 Salon reveals open-knit, alluring scents of butterscotch,...
WA
99
WNR
99
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750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $328.95
To the eye, La Grande Dame 1996 presents a color with bright, golden glints. The initial nose reveals a strong,...

Champagne Blend Gruner Veltliner Rum Schioppettino 1996

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.

Gruner Veltliner is a pale skinned white wine grape varietal most closely associated with central European countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In recent years, it has spread somewhat to several New World countries, where it is becoming gradually more popular and regularly seen in wine stores. One of the main attractions of this grape varietal for winemakers is the fact that it is highly versatile, and can be used for the production of several different wine styles, including young, dry white wines, excellent sparkling wines, and it is also a grape varietal which is well suited for aging Gruner Veltliner has the ability to express much of its terroir, and the best examples are generally those which are full of delightfully mineral-rich flavors alongside the more usual notes of citrus fruits and peach.

It is difficult to categorize rum as a single spirit, because of all the spirits found around the globe, rum is perhaps the one which varies most dramatically from place to place. Clear, white rum - a favorite for cocktail drinkers - is perhaps the most prevalent example found today, but there is a whole world of darker, spiced and molasses-rich rums to explore, thanks to the fascinating history and wide reach this drink has.

Rum came about during the colonial times, when sugar was a huge and world-changing business. The molasses left over from the sugar production industry could easily be distilled into a delicious alcoholic drink, and provided extra income for the sugar traders. Before long, it became a favorite of sailors and transatlantic merchants, and it quickly spread across the Caribbean and Latin America, where it remains highly popular today.

The production of rum is a basic and simple one - you take your molasses, add yeast and water, and then ferment and distil the mixture. However, as is often the case, the devil is in the detail. The variation in yeasts found from place to place, the maturation period, the length of the fermentation and the type of stills and barrels used provide the rainbow-colored variation that gives rum its spectrum of styles and characteristics.