Tasted blind at the Southwold Bordeaux 2010 tasting. This is a great La Tour Martillac that must be one the finest releases from the estate in recent years. It has quite an elegant understated bouquet with autumn leaves...

Very perfumed and subtle with dried flowers and citrus, as well as blue fruit. Full-bodied with wonderfully diffused, integrated tannins that just run over the edges of the wine. It’s extremely polished and very, very...

Blueberry, blackcurrant, clove, dark chocolate, praline and gravel on the nose. It’s full-bodied with firm, fine-grained tannins. Focused, chewy and layered. Fantastic effort here. Try from 2025.

This palate staining gem serves up its blend of crushed rocks, flowers, ripe, sweet, plums, cherries, licorice, smoke and dark cocoa with little effort. Long, concentrated, full bodied and opulent, there are layers of...

The 2020 Château Calon Ségur is pure gold and another masterpiece from this estate. Harvested all in September and pulled from their 48 hectares of vines, the blend is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 9% Cabernet...

Based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot, the deep purple-hued 2020 Château Cos D'Estournel has, dare I say, an almost Lafite-like sense of elegance and class, offering gorgeous cassis and darker currants fruits as...

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Pavie sashays out with flamboyant notes of black and red cherries, black raspberries, and juicy plums opening out to fragrant underlying scents of forest floor, Sichuan pepper, and...

A true “Wow!” wine from the American Adam’s family, who acquired this estate a little over a decade ago, the 2010 Château Fonplegade is the normal blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc brought up in plenty of new...

The 2015 Tertre Roteboeuf is medium to deep garnet in color. It bursts with a first wave of profound black fruit preserves - prunes, boysenberries, and blackberry jelly - before slowly unfurling to uncover notes of...

The 2016 has all the ingredients for the long haul. The colour is dark to the rim, the nose restrained but serious and intense, the palate structured and harmonious (despite the alcohol). There's a huge charge of very...

This has lively pepper and bay streaks, along with a sanguine twinge, amid the core of cherry and red currant fruit. A bright iron note shows on the finish. Has length, refinement and purity. Best from 2018 through 2024...

Incredibly perfumed aromas of roses and violets, as well as blue fruit and lavender. Full-bodied and powerful, yet so full of finesse and vibrance. The height of elegance! Such depth of chalk and dark berries. It goes on...

This nearly 200-acre estate lies in the south of the Margaux appellation. The wine is another great success in a series of superb years. It is rich but the structure and finely textured fruit give it style and longevity...

One of the standouts in 2019. Red fruit aromatics are so clear on the nose, strawberries and sweet red cherries with some bramble floral notes - delicate and liffed. Gorgeous expression on the palate, so finely framed...

With a remarkable depth of color, the wine opens from the glass with touches of espresso, smoke, tobacco, flowers, spice and an array of red and black fruits. Full-bodied, richly textured, opulent, velvety and silken, the...

The second wine of Château Pavie is dense with dark tannins and superripe fruit. Bold and concentrated it still highlights the fruitiness of the vintage. Although it has big tannins and great potential, the wine also...

Loads of meaty black cherries, currants, truffle, chocolate, and tobacco emerge from the 2018 Château Beauregard. Full-bodied, it has a round, elegant texture, classic Pomerol finesse, silky tannins, and a great finish...

Deeply colored, the wine is all about its sensuality. Texturally, the wine is silk and velvet with its layers of sweet, luscious plums, cherries, smoke and licorice. Full-bodied with a fabulous depth of flavor, seamless...

The wines here continue getting better year after year. And 2018 is no exception. Just the color, with its dark, purple ink hue tells you you're in for something special. There is incredible intensity of flavor here. The...

(98-100 points) Full-bodied, concentrated, rich and velvety, the wine promptly provides layer after layer of flawlessly ripe, black and dark red pit fruits, crushed rocks, licorice, espresso, smoke and flowers. Long...

The finest wine I've tasted from this estate, the 2020 Château Bellefont-Belcier is an incredibly gorgeous blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep ruby/purple-hued, it offers a great nose...

A tight and alluring red with spice, chocolate and berry character. Full-bodied yet tight and composed. Beautiful length and balance. Give it time to show you what it has. Try in 2020.

A dense and layered red with ripe plums and blueberries, as well as hints of wet earth and moss. Full-bodied, velvety and layered with fantastic fruit and creamy, velvety tannins. Plush and deep. Great wine. Try from 2023.

The 2010 Branaire-Ducru has a lovely mélange of red and black fruit, hints of dried blood and autumn leaves suggesting that this is moving into its secondary phase. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, a fine...

Fascinating aromas of dark fruit, smoke and dried flowers. The palate is full and juicy yet still delivers a solid and polished tannin structure as well as a good backbone of acidity, which adds depth and definition...

Delivers a solid, racy beam of raspberry coulis, black currant paste and blackberry fruit, underscored by a racy graphite spine. Flashes of fruitcake and tar show on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from...

The 2012 Grand Village, from the Guinaudeau family of Château Lafleur fame, is really lovely this year and one of the great bargains to be found in the vintage. As readers may recall, this is in reality a Lalande de...

Tasted with Baptiste Guinaudeau, the 2008 Lafleur is a wine for which I have a lot of time, and as it approaches a decade old, it is beginning to loosen up a little. There is plenty of fruit on the nose—more than I have...