CHÂTEAU LE GAY
2017 Pomerol
The 2017 Le Gay has a strong whiff of the sea coming from the glass, brine and a little Japanese nori (seaweed) that is neatly sutured into the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a little oaky at the moment with dark chocolate and a little leather tincturing the black and red fruit. It just feels a little predictable on the finish whereas the best recent vintages of Le Gay have fanned out and demonstrated more precision. Nevertheless, Le Gay often blossoms during its élevage so this might surprise when in bottle. Drinking range: 2023 - 2045 Rating: 90-92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)
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This has good volume and mouthfeel, with rich, well-feathered cassis and powerful dark chocolate. It's one to age, an opulent, decadent wine that's still quite tight. Leave it a good few years. Drinking range: 2027 - 2038 Rating: 90 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)
Beautiful purple, vibrantly colored, the 2017 Le Gay offers loads of classic cassis and cherry fruit, medium to full body, building floral and minerality, ripe, integrated tannin, and a great finish. It's a fresh, elegant, silky 2017 that should evolve for 15-20 years. This estate wasn’t hit by the April frost and they’ve produced a head turner of a Pomerol. Rating: 92-94 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Apr 2018)
90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. Very ripe fruit, 100% barriques intégrales – ie fermented in new oak barriques. Black with dark purple core. Almost raisiny. Dark and savoury and charry on the palate but there's freshness too. Very dark on the finish. A bit hard and tough overall. Drinking range: 2024 - 2035 Rating: 16 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)
This has some eye-opening toasty depths, with warm ganache and vanilla notes leading the way for a very polished core of plum preserve flavors. A bit monochromatic, but it is a pretty color. Rating: 91-94 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2018)
Very pretty and refined with an excellent depth of fruit and attraction. Medium to full body, fine tannins and a fresh and subtle finish. Shows elegance. Rating: 93-94 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2018)
From just 5 hectares of vines, the yield in this vintage was 25 hl/ha. The frost largely spared the vines up on the plateau, but hit those on the slope behind the château, so there is no Manoir de Gay this year. The fruit was picked between September 19th and the 28th, the blend 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The vinification here is in barrels, the method known as vinification integrale. This has a very dark fruit character on the nose, fresh and pure, with scents of black cherries, ripe and sweet. The palate shows the same style and confidence, a supple and medium-bodied substance, carrying dry and tense black cherry skins as well as notes of praline, currants and desiccated fruits, underpinned by a ripe and lightly velvety presence of tannins. A rather harmonious, composed structure in the finish, with a little length, where the tannins feel correct and composed. This shows impressive, reserved, understated potential. Very good indeed. Rating: 93-95 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)
Château le Gay
Château le Gay, and near-by Château Lafleur, were owned by sisters Therese and Marie Robin for some sixty years. In the later years of their tenure, the management of the estate had been largely entrusted to the Moueix family with whom it was mostly expected that the estate would end up. But when Marie Robin died and her heirs had to sell one of the estates to meet inheritance duties, it was Catherine Pere-Verge who emerged as the owner of le Gay. Catherine had spent 40 years working for the family crystal ware business before deciding to semi-retire by buying a château in Pomerol. She started at Château Montveil where she garnered sufficient enthusiasm for the life of a vigneron to throw her hat into the ring with the better sited Château le Gay. She, subsequently, went on to buy the set to be iconic Château la Violette. On buying Château le Gay, Catherine installed new wine making facilities and increased the size of the vineyard by planting some previous unplanted land. Even with the newer vines, the average age of the vineyard is still 40 years old, planted to 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.