The finest of the first growths this year appears to be the 2023 Lafite Rothschild, a terrific effort that unwinds in the glass with deep and incipiently complex aromas of cassis, pencil shavings, lilac and violets mingled with hints of cigar wrapper and ...
The 2023 La Tour Figeac is a gorgeous, super-complex wine. Dried herbs, incense, licorice, spice, crushed flowers and mocha lend notable aromatic complexity. Deep and virile, with tons of depth and fine balance, La Tour Figeac is shaping up very nicely. T...
The 2023 Château Calon Ségur is absolutely brilliant and clearly in the top handful of wines in the vintage. Based on 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, it has a stunning array of cassis and black raspberry-like f...
The 2023 Léoville-Poyferré was picked from September 14 until October 5 at 52.78hL/ha and aged in slightly less new oak than usual, simply because of the large volume. In fact, some of the lots commenced their malolactic fermentation in vat rather than...
The 1988 Chateau Margaux is a wine that was always overshadowed by the succeeding pair of vintages and like many 1988s, appeared rather conservative and lacked flair. However, I was gobsmacked by the performance of this wine at 28 years of age. Deep and c...
This was the finest performance by this wine that I have seen since it was released. I did not expect the 2003 Chateau Margaux to show this well in a vintage where the southern part of the Medoc was clearly less impressive than the north. However, it is a...
Bottled very late (November, 1997), the 1995 has continued to flesh out, developing into one of the great classics made under the Mentzelopoulos regime. The color is opaque ruby/purple. The nose offers aromas of licorice and sweet smoky new oak intermixed...
Tasted blind at the 2012 Southwold tasting, the 2012 Château Margaux has a taut, linear, pencil lead-infused bouquet with pure blackberry and boysenberry scents, an undercurrent of tobacco that surfaces after five minutes in the glass. The palate is mediu...
The 2021 Château Margaux saw a traditional élevage in new barrels, with bottling in July, and as readers will remember, it's a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot that benefited from late picking, appreciable...
The 2022 Château Margaux obliged reams of superlatives from barrel. Now in bottle, it is a stone-cold breathtaking First Growth that belongs on the mantelpiece alongside the 1959 and 1983. That said, at rst, the aromatics are bashful, yet it takes lit...