Jean-Fran?ois Coche's 1996 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru is one of the monumental white Burgundies of the 20th century, and this particular bottle was the most spectacular that I've drunk to date. Soaring from the glass with aromas of confit tangerine, iodine, butter toast, sesame oil and wet stones, it's full-bodied, satiny and incisive, with huge depth at the core, racy acids and a long, resonant finish. Such is its intensity of flavor, persistence and harmony that if it could score more than one hundred points, I wouldn't have hesitated. The 1996 is at the peak of its powers today.