A seductive mix of powerful, opulent blackberry and raspberry fruits cut through with vibrant juice, flint, crushed rocks, chocolate and liquorice. The texture is lucious on the opening, but as you sit with it, the...

The 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou, 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, is deep garnet in color. It bursts from the glass with bold notes of creme de cassis, boysenberry preserves, black cherry compote, and new leather...

The wine's richness is concentrated into dark black fruits and spicy wood polish. It is a dark wine, ripe with berry flavors and concentration, Drink from 2026. ROGER VOSS

Chocolate covered strawberries, licorice, smoke, spice and espresso are a treat in the nose. The richly-textured palate is even better with its luscious-layers of ripe black cherries, dark chocolate, licorice, and hint of...

The 2012 Sena is the product of a warm year combined with the peak of the overripe, oaky approach in style. A blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Carmenere, 12% Merlot, 7% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot aged for 22 months in...

The 2015 Talbot has an exuberant nose with black cherry, bilberry, wild mint and brown spice aromas. This has fine delineation and well-integrated oak. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit mixed with game and...

Composed of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Carmenere, the 2016 Brane-Cantenac is deep garnet-purple colored. It is a little broody, with notes of tar and rubber giving way to a core of creme...

Always a gem of a wine, the 2021 Château Tour Saint Christophe is no exception and has tons of charm and character. Ripe red and black fruits, tobacco, chalky minerality, and nicely integrated oak all define the...

This pure Merlot, unusual for Saint-Émilion, is powerful and one with great elegance and style. It has structure and a spicy aroma that shows the wine's richness. On the slopes of Saint-Emilion, this 26-acre estate makes...

The 2019 Alcee is a blend of 96% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, it bursts with notes of wild blueberries, boysenberries, and rose oil, plus suggestions of cardamom and tilled soil...

(96-98 points) Checking in as 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot that's resting in 90% new French oak, the 2025 Château Lafite Rothschild sports a classic, deep ruby hue as well as a complex and...

Aromas of wild herbs, walnuts, sweet tobacco and a gentle earthy note. Medium- to full-bodied with delineated dark fruit and integrated tannins. Elegant and precise, offering wonderful depth. Approachable now, but its...

The 1998 Clos L'Eglise is deep garnet in color with a touch of brick. It charges out of the gate with bold scents of redcurrant jelly, stewed plums, and dried mulberries with hints of cigar box, sauteed herbs, and smoked...

(96-98 points) Deep purple-hued, the 2025 Château Pontet-Canet showed beautifully both times I tasted it, with incredibly classic Pontet-Canet notes of cassis, violets, iris, and gravelly earth and graphite. Based on 56%...

(97-99 points) Cassis, currants, smoky tobacco, chocolate, and graphite all define the 2025 Château Cos D'Estournel, a powerful, ripe, concentrated beauty based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot...

The 2020 Le Pauillac de Chateau Latour is a blend of 53% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it springs from the glass with vivacious notes of stewed blackberries, raspberry...

The grand vin from the Decosters is a blend of 76% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, matured mostly in new French oak barrels, with some use of older oak, foudre s and amphorae. A rather restrained...

A deliciously inviting nose, with dark and perfumed fruits, blackcurrant, blackberry and damson, with smoky crushed chalk, rose petal and toast, as well as a touch of honeyed oak. The palate builds on this start with a...

The black olives and dark fruit come through on the nose with violets and wet earth. Full and very chunky and powerful. Yet it’s lively and vivid with excellent energy. Fantastic. Pure merlot. Leave it until 2030.

A very floral and gently leafy edge with lighter red fruit, leading to a very smoothly fleshy, red-fruited palate that’s sleek, even and elegant. Drink or hold.

Made from 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 d'Aiguilhe is medium to deep garnet-purple colored. It needs a little swirling to reveal notes of crushed black cherries, black raspberries, and violets, plus wafts of...

The 2018 La Rose Perrière has come together beautifully since I last tasted it. Rich, deep and sumptuous, the 2018 possesses terrific depth and density from start to finish. Inky dark fruit, chocolate, licorice, spice...

At age 12, this is tasting mature with its tobacco, mushroom and earthy, cassis and cranberry driven personality. Medium bodied, this lighter style of St, Julien will offer the most pleasure over the next 5-7...

Composed of 79% Merlot and 21% Cabernet Franc, the 2017 Plince is medium to deep garnet-purple in color and rolls effortlessly out of the glass with scents of blackberry pie, plum preserves and kirsch plus suggestions of...

Peony and violet floral notes, raspberry and redcurrant fruits, tannins a little austere right now but this has great structure and depth to the flavours. Of the recent vintages, I recommend the 2014 for the next few...

Deep garnet purple in color, the 2019 Pavie is a tad restrained to start, needing some patient swirling to coax out notes of fresh blueberries and boysenberries plus underlying scents of kirsch, violets, star anise, and...

A blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, the 2019 d’Armailhac has a deep garnet color, with a touch of purple. It gallops out with open-knit, flamboyant scents of black...

At the moment, Pichon Baron is outmuscling it's neighbour across the road. Intense, concentrated and inky dark-currant fruit on the palate with pronounced lead-pencil/mineral notes. 80% new oak. Yet there is more than...