The magnificent Corton Perrieres Vieilles Vignes is dark-colored and reveals deep aromas of black fruits, earth, and toasted oak. This wine is highly-concentrated, velvety, broad-shouldered, muscular, profound, and intensely powerful. Layers of beautifully ripe cassis, black cherries, and prunes are intermingled with iron, violets, and minerals in this complex and offering. It should be at its peak between 2002 and 2007. The score, on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel.Vincent Girardin's 1996s are generally fresher and more supple than his 1995s, but are not as concentrated or structured. Since he personally prefers softer styled wines, Girardin prefers the 1996 vintage. My feeling is that many of his 1995s will develop better over time than these delicious mid-term drinking wine.Importer: as well as for the Maranges Clos Roussot and Pommard Vignots (I tasted neither),European Cellars (Eric Solomon, tel 212-924-4949), under the Baron de la Charriere label.