Saint Julien

Medium ruby garnet colour with candied red fruits and some earthy notes. The palate is medium bodied with a silky texture. Black cherry, raspberry and licorice with secondary notes of leather, dried herbs and well integr...(read more)

A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot, this has a crisp blackberry, slightly tarry bouquet that takes a minute or two to open. The palate is dominated by the cedar and tobacco-tinged Cabernet rending this a ra...(read more)

The initial impression is of a very strong sweet oakiness - rather new world in style. But the volume is there underneath and the dense fruit character of the wine shrugs off this coating and powers on with smooth dry Ca...(read more)

Incomparable scent!. A lot of Merlot in Langoa this year, and the open, sweet juicy gorgeousness of it can probably be put down to this. Very aromatic, fluidly elegant, full of very pure flavour. Complex and interesting,...(read more)

Branaire is really on a roll. Both first and second wines since 1998 have been faultless. The 2001 is better than either 1998 or 1999, and hardly below the 2000, a point which Philippe Dhalluin makes by giving it to us t...(read more)

As the general manager Jean-Pierre Marty remarks, Talbot does well in hot years. 37% Merlot, 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3 or 4% Petit Verdot. Nice bright nose. Curranty cassis. It quickly gathers pace on the palate, fine te...(read more)

Fresh. Showing Talbot medicinal Cabernet, cool and supple blackcurrant, then firming noticeably, but still fresh, still crisp on the finish.

Smoky and earthy, with copious jammy cassis fruit and sweet tannin, this is an excellent, full-bodied Saint-Pierre. The saturated deep purple color is followed by a persistent, concentrated wine with copious sweet tannin...(read more)

A terrific Langoa (again), deep dense and rich with an expressive centre, lovely flavour all the way through. Structure is quite dense, woody, but the fruit and class carry it.

Like Langoa, a very classical profile, marginally more haughty and austere, the Cabernet coming out. How does it manage always to be a different colour to all the other wines - an imperial Roman purple. Lovely rich textu...(read more)

Very rich, very fine attack - liquid-fresh, finer that silk, sweet, pure crème de fruits attack. Big, despite Marcel Ducasse’s stated aim of promoting elegance above all, ‘this is the limit of power that I like’,...(read more)

Deep dark colour going to black. The nose has a rich bass note of black fruit, and the palate is broad and weighty, black fruit of great intensity. Morello cherries on the finish, fine and intense.