CHÂTEAU MALESCASSE

From vines located between Margaux and Saint-Julien, the 2016 Château Malescasse is a winner and a solid step up over the 2015. Saturated ruby/purple-colored with a smoking good bouquet of blackberries, saddle leather, dried herbs, and lead pencil, this beauty hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a rounded, sexy texture, and a serious finish. Hats off to this estate and the consulting team of Stéphane Derenoncourt for this stunning effort. Drink it any time over the coming 15+ years. Drinking range: 2019 - 2034 Rating: 92 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2019)

The 2016 Malescasse is quite powerful and rustic, but also quite pleasing in its own way. Black cherry, chocolate, cloves, spice and licorice add character. Although not especially complex, this expressive, hearty Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois has a lot to offer. It should drink well over the next handful of years. Drinking range: 2019 - 2026 Rating: 88 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Jan 2019)

The 2016 Malescasse has a very high toned bouquet with blueberry and black cherry fruit, very floral in style but just very high toned and showy. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin, plenty of tarry black fruit but it lacks definition on the finish and feels over-egged in the winery. This is disappointing as I admired other vintages of Malescasse in the past. A second bottle is slightly better but still bitter and this one, slightly metallic on the finish. Tasted at the Cru Bourgeois tasting in London. Rating: 85 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Oct 2018)