Bordeaux Blends

This Médoc is crafted by the team at Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite, and beautifully displays the quality of the 2020 vintage with rich, plummy, cherry fruit. There are complex clove, cedar and woody herb aromas. It has a long savoury finish, with ripe tannins. It'll be great now with a range of dishes, in the ideal format for sharing, but will equally grow in complexity and savoury depth with some time in the cellar.

This is a special late release from Château Giscours: their second wine from an outstanding vintage. The label is the winning design from a competition launched in March 2021, designed by James Albon, and 100% of the profits from the sale of this wine will be donated to The Drinks Trust’s Covid-19 relief fund, to support members of the UK hospitality industry adversely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. The wine itself is beautiful. Notes of violets and pure, dark Cabernet fruit on the nose, while the palate is detailed, with fine tannins and a savoury note underpinning the core of ripe fruit. The finish is chiselled and intense, with lots of energy shining through. This demonstrates why 2015 in Margaux is such a legendary vintage: it’s a stunning wine, for an excellent cause.

Montaiguillon’s 2020 is another resounding success, continuing a string of excellent vintages at the estate. It is a deep ruby colour with notes of spiced plums, cassis and blackberries on the nose. There’s a savoury, graphite note woven through the juicy, sumptuous palate. Its rounded tannins are already integrated with the plump fruit, and the finish has a fresh, balanced length, the likes of which you’d expect from wines with much bigger price tags.

Tasted April 2022. Very intense black fruits, with a slight aromatic lift and savoury spice. The acidity is fantastically fresh, but balances so well with the pure, ripe fruit. There's complexity of crushed rock, mint and clove. This has density and concentration, but is perfectly poised. The tannins are ripe and there is a lovely saline, appetising quality to the finish, thanks to a higher than usual proportion of Cabernet Franc.

Tasted April 2023. 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. 14.6% ABV. 50% new oak. Picked from 1st September. Aromatic and floral on the nose with bright black berry fruit and some fresh cherries. Opulent style of fruit compared to Le Chenade this year, with plenty of ripe tannin and a seam of stony freshness. Layered with stone and dried petals.

Tasted April 2022. Seriously impressive in 2021, La Garde has good concentration and a velvet, almost creamy texture. The flavours are full of bramble, blackcurrant, red plum and violets, and there's a developing silkiness to the tannins.

A mini Ornellaia, this second wine is made up of a Bordeaux blend of Merlot (44%), Cabernet Sauvignon (30%), Cabernet Franc (13%) and Petit Verdot (13%). 2020 saw rather changeable weather with very long periods followed by heavy rainfall and drops in temperature, resulting in a longer harvest than usual to enable the different varieties were picked at optimum ripeness and condition. A combination of hand picking, sorting tables at the winery as well as the addition of an optical sorter in 2016 has resulted in a wine that is of impressive quality. The wine is aged in French barriques (25% new) for 15 months before being bottled and remains in bottle for a futher 6 months prior to release. The winemaker believes the 2020 is reminiscent of 2018, 2013 and 2010, and having tasted all three recently, this wine is destined for great things. Expect red plums and red wild berry perfume, combined with liquorice spice and herbal undertones.

The 2022 is a superb vintage from this Tuscan estate, based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. There is a richness of red and black berry fruits combining with leather, liquorice and cinnamon spice. The tannins are plush and velvety and there is a refreshing acidity that lingers on the finish, displaying this wine's pedigree.

Château Thénac is undoubtedly the finest wine from Bergerac that we’ve come across. The 2015 is deep in colour with notes of ripe plum, dark chocolate, and bramble. There’s plenty of grip here, with vanilla spice and a hint of cedar, and fresh, lifted acidity. This really punches above its modest price tag.

From the Durantou family of wines, this is a bottle that will never disappoint. There's a coolness here, but still so much fruit, and wonderful tannic structure. For a wine at this price point this will age brilliantly - everyone should have a bottle or two in their cellar.

Tasted April 2023. Bursting with aromatic fruit like black cherry, damson and bramble. Opulent and rounded on the palate, it nevertheless remains elegant and lifted with a saline finish.

The 2019 La Gaffeliere is a drop-dead gorgeous St-Emilion: the best wine I have tasted from this historic estate. Violets on the nose, with a wonderfully refined, focussed palate. This is so long, and so moreish. A top buy in 2019.

A bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and a small % of Sangiovese that is aged in oak burgundy barrels for 2 years. Blackberry fruits and bramble fruits are supported with cassis and bell pepper notes as well as tobacco and cedar spice. Tannins are firm, yet have a suppleness to them.

Elena Pozzolini has brought this Tuscan estate, which borders the heralded Bolgheri region, to new heights and this Bordeaux blend displays the richness and concentration of the vintage with the restraint and focus that the Sette Cieli wines offer.

Tasted April 2023. This has the same bright red fruit character as La Gaffeliere, and has a lovely silky texture, with summer fruits on the palate and a chalky note to the finish. Balanced and pure, with a long finish and some taut, densely-packed tannin. Puyblanquet is a brilliant wine this year and a complete bargain.

A vibrant and athletic style of Tignanello with a slightly higher proportion of Cabernet this year. This has imbued the wine with a sinewy tension and drama which is so excting. Dark cherry and hedgerow fruit mingle with notes of violets, wild thyme, and fresh earth. This gains momentum on the finish with no hint of excess.

The 2020 Château Figeac is one of the wines of the vintage. Incredibly refined and almost haunting in its aromatics, this is so mineral, focussed, and utterly beguiling. The finish lasts an age: this is one of the longest, purest, most complex wines we've tried this year. You have to have it.

The blend is 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc, and it has turned out well in 2010, producing a richly fruity, elegant style of Pomerol with loads of berry fruit, cedar wood and roasted herbs as well as hints of coffee bean and cedar. Rich, medium to full-bodied , but never losing its finesse (which is usually the style of La Croix de Gay), this wine should drink nicely for up to 15 years. 91 points, Robert Parker

A wine to challenge the brilliance of the 2015 and 2016 at this estate, notes of small plums and blackberries, and wild violets. The palate is silky and voluminous but not overblown, and there’s charming detailing on the finish. An estate you should buy every year.

Described by Bruno Borie at Ducru-Beaucaillou as being another expression of Ducru, rather than simply a second wine, this is a wine that has certainly seen an enormous increase in quality over recent vintages.

Very attractive and pure, perfumed, blueberry and blackcurrant nose, with creamy notes and a touch of graphite. On palate the fruit is pure and focused. The tannins are fine and accessible and the finish is fresh and of good fruit length. Gently expressed, very well balanced and likely to represent a fabulous quality to price ratio.

Deep and brooding, very mineral and fine, striking tannic structure and there's a depth to the fruit. Power, balance and intensity. Really impressively put together with energy and length.

The Durantou stable of wines are, once again, not to be missed, and this is the perfect example. So much going on here, with lots of bright fruit, crunchy tannins, and a long, stony finish. For the medium term this will surprise and delight. Stock up.

Ripe, scented, attractive and appealing, with a gently creamy, but mainly perfumed nose of red and black berry aromatics. Seamless texture and balanced weight. The fruit here is wonderfully pure, tannins are finely tuned and the wine is sustained by long, mineral freshness.

Robert Parker: 94-98+ points (Wine Advocate 188)

Tasted April 2023. 82% Merlot, 17.5% Cabernet Franc and 0.5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14.5%. Precise and savoury-tinged black berry fruit, some softer black plum. Lots of tight structure now, ripe, gravelly tannins. Ripe and full bodied, but not overly opulent or creamy. Sapid, mineral with a slight appetising bitterness on the finish. Stony freshness and subtle peppermint notes. 15% amphora, 10% foudre, the remainder in barrique.