1996 Henriot Cuvee Des Enchanteleurs

Wine Spectator, June 2010
($170) Tight-grained, with an immediate impression of the sea before forest floor and citrus notes take over. This is bright and fresh, with plenty of spice, toast and candied berry flavors, backed by a firm structure. The finish just keeps going.  97 points.

John Gilman's View from the Cellar, July/August 2010
The 1996 Cuvée des Enchanteleurs is a very young and very beautiful example of this stunning Champagne vintage. The bouquet offers up a superb mélange of apple, pink grapefruit, a touch of caraway seed, brioche and a great base of complex minerality. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and beautifully soil-driven, with very refined mousse, bright acids, brilliant focus and superb length and grip on the zesty and very minerally finish. While the ’96 Cuvée des Enchanteleurs is very tasty already, it is clearly still very early days for this lovely wine and there is no doubt that four or five years of additional bottle age will be richly rewarded. Superb juice. (Drink between 2012-2035)  95 points.

Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Nov/Dec 2010
($185; a 50/50 blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, all from grand cru vineyards) Vivid yellow-gold. Kaleidoscopic aromas of citrus fruits, poached pear, mango, lees and licorice, with slow-building florality. Supple, palate-coating orchard and exotic fruit flavors are complicated by notes of herbs and buttered toast, with a smoky quality in the background. Seems younger than it did last year, showing excellent finishing clarity and persistent smoke and spice character. This really won't let go of the palate, which is fine by me. I'd still hold this.  94 points.

Brad Baker's Champagne Warrior, July 2009
A big step up from the basic Henriot vintage, this is full of rich concentrated fruit and yeast on both the nose and palate. The highlight of the wine is the lovely concentration of bitter citrus extract mixed with yeast that leads into a long and lingering finish. This is really good stuff and has a long future ahead of it. The 96 Enchanteleurs has High A- (91-93) potential and easily places itself within the top 30 wines of the vintage.  A- and 91-93 points.