Pauillac

The 2012 Pibran has a ripe, forward, black cherry and raspberry bouquet, the Merlot component very expressive and lending vivacious allure to the aromatics. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly chewy tannins on the entry. A pleasant edginess supplies fine tension and energy on the fin...(read more)

52% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot. Very dark, with a little spice in the round and smooth blackberry fruit. Some succulence and definition in the smooth volume which puts it ahead of some of the other lesser Pauillacs. A bit of bracing tannin. Quietly confident, quite jui...(read more)

75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot. Cool weight of black, fresh, sexy suave fruit. Classical and rich, with impressive weight and power. Graphite minerals and sumptuous cassis. Seriously attractive, very long and one of the hits of the year.

Haut Batailley (GPL's stablemate) having been so good, it was hard to believe the extent to which Grand Puy Lacoste moves into another dimension. Lovely expression of fruit, floral, elegant and fat, with a touch middle of pain d'épices, and layer upon layer of juicy, clinging flavour.

This marks a better showing for Lynch Bages, this bottle retaining the austere, stoic facade but behind it more evidence of blueberry, iodine and violets. Good lift with an undercurrent of sous-bois. Very ripe entry, chewy tannins, blackberry, boysenberry and graphite leading to a dense, d...(read more)

Another unbelievably rich, multidimensional, broad-shouldered wine, with slightly more elegance and less weight than the powerhouse 1996, this gorgeously proportioned, medium to full-bodied, fabulously ripe, rich, cassis-scented and flavored Grand-Puy-Lacoste is a beauty. It should be drin...(read more)

At last shedding its tannins and revealing fabulously rich fruit and great elegance. A wonderful Pauillac.

Rich and dense, but not the dense concentration of Pontet Canet, for example. Velvety and pure, very harmonious on the palate. Power builds and the finish comes through with plums and black cherries and lots of ripe rich tannins. There is a lovely length to the fruit.

Ripe just to the last possible point before being sweet. Complete and completely full, with complexity coming. Great depth - there are classical black depths of pencil-lead to plumb. A beautifully-structured, super wine. This is clearly an better wine than the slightly disappointing (for P...(read more)

An utterly profound Lynch-Bages, this wine continues to remind me of a hypothetical blend of the 1990 and 1989. Interestingly, when I asked Jean-Michel Cazes to rank his top four vintages of Lynch-Bages, he ranked the 1989 first, followed by three vintages that he said were essentially equ...(read more)