Giboin Millesime 1996 40%

GIBOIN MILLESIME 1996

BORDERIES, SWEET BORDERIES

Colour : Pale gold. Regular  medium tears.

Nose : A lot of bitterness and spiciness at first. Lemon syrup. Raspberry vinegar. A great dash of caraway. It’s quite floral too, particularly on rose water. Fresh licorice. Orange peel. A little of honey. Everything is expressed by little touch and with a lot of finesse in this Giboin Millesime 1996. Scents of canned corn and freshly cut grass. This cognac seems to be quite wet, let’s verify these first impressions with the palate.

Palate : Oily texture. Full of multi-flower honey. A lot of freshness. Violet perfume. Tinned peaches and apricots.  A dash of black pepper. It’s a bit too shy. Why 40% ? However, a great acidity on lemon zest and coriander underlines the freshness previously perceived. Let’s give 10 minutes to this cognac.

Last Notes : A little buttery, on pastry notes and nougat. A great fruitiness too. With time, it becomes more and more intense. Apricots jam, dry figs.  Then it goes on bitterness. Walnut oil. Orange blossom and candied lemon. The mouth is better too. It’s quite spicy. Safran, olive oil. Dried tomatoes, paprika  but it’s still a bit weak, maybe a little watery. Still on freshness and bitterness. Freshly cut wood. Minty chocolate. Candied lemon again. It ends on shy notes of vanilla cream and nougat.  

The nose is clearly better than the palate. Too bad, because it has certainly the potential of a beautiful Borderies. In my humble opinion, this 22yo Giboin has much more to say. A little more convincing than the Grateaud Napoléon.

My very subjective note : 85+/100

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