St Emilion

A Lay & Wheeler favourite for years, what's not to love about this St-Emilion, part of the Durantou family of wines. Silky and fine, with loads of savoury tannins, and long and pure finish. Buy this in bottles, and magnums, and make sure you've always got both to hand over the years to come.

Tasted April 2022. Delicious and aromatic, this 2021 is full of soft red and black berry fruits, kirsch, mulberry and damson. Cashmere texture, fine, ripe tannins and bright acidity. There's great concentration here and a savoury, mineral finish. Fantastic value as ever. 13.5%.

This St-Emilion is one of our go-to wines, for sheer quality and value for money. The final vintage overseen by Denis Durantou, this is a wine to buy by the case.

Tasted April 2022. Angélus 2021 has the highest percentage of Cabernet Franc ever, with 60% of the blend. This gives some lovely floral and iodine aromatics, with lovely freshness and just a hint of crunchy red fruit on the mineral finish. The rest of the flavours are of dark fruits, spice, vanilla, and the tannins are ripe and highly structured for long ageing.

One can't help but be impressed by Château Ausone, set at the top of a tortuously twisted road, with its caves and chapelle dug into the limestone cliff. It is a fittingly romantic location for one of the world's greatest wines. A blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot, this is dark and brooding in the glass. The nose is exceedingly rich and dense, with attractive black cherry and bramble fruit characters. The tannins are firm and structured, yet ripe and well integrated with the rich core of dark cherry, cassis and damson fruit. A stony minerality and a dart of refreshing acidity reflect the terroir and lend backbone to the rich succulent fruit.

Lovely intensity and power. There's so much depth and concentration here, spanning floral notes to deep dark fruits, bound up with lovely tension and elegance. This is beautiful. The finish is nicely balanced with a cool, saline finish and more spice and flowers. Quite brilliant.

Tasted April 2022. An unusual blend this year with 75% Cabernet Franc and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is medium-bodied, full of fresh red berry fruit and crushed stone, mineral notes, petals and mint. There's some spicy, richer notes developing, and plenty of fresh acidity.

The 2012 Château Simard is a blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc sourced from vineyards planted on clay, sand, and gravel soils at the foot of the sunny southern slopes of St-Emilion. Since 2008 the Vaulthier family has invested heavily in the estate and implemented a rigorous selection process, leading to some of the best wines in the estate’s centuries-old history. Notes of cigar box, Chinese five spice, and redcurrant leap from the nose while the palate is well balanced. One of the Right Bank’s great values.

Tasted April 2022. Incredible depth and flavours of blackberry, black and red plums and raspberry knitted together seamlessly. There are lots of lifted petal notes, licquorice and gentle spice. There's a silkiness to the fruit, a broad texture, but also some chalky grip, with ripe, closely packed tannins and a seam of refreshing acidity.

Tasted April 2022. This is the first vintage for Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse and it's a stellar effort and one of our favourite wines of the vintage. It's ripe but incredibly elegant with loads of crushed rock, mineral, almost salty elements to it. Slight herbal notes at the start and end on the palate but in good balance with the other ripe flavours, coming across as an almost minty freshness. Tiny volumes made, this is really one to watch.

Shy and a touch restrained, opening up in the glass and across the palate. This is a fine example of the classic style of the vintage.

Tasted April 2022. Cascading fresh red and black berry fruit, with a distinct aroma of fresh raspberries. More lifted aromas of mint make this really delicious and fresh. There's a lovely soft fruit middle giving a velvet texture on the palate, and there's balanced fresh acidity and very fine tannins.

Berliquet, tucked away between the illustrious names of St-Emilion, really is one to watch. 2017 was the first vintage under the new owners, who also run Chateaux Rauzan Segla and Canon. It’s full of rich plum and blackberry fruit with a mineral complexity alongside woody herbs and licquorice spice. Elegant and silky with soft tannins.

Tasted April 2022. The best wine we've tasted from Berliquet, the 2021 is full of dark, brooding fruit. There's a powerful earthiness to the complexity in this wine, and plenty of chalky, cool freshness on the finish. Really well balanced, pure and concentrated.

The second wine of celebrated Chateau Canon, from a parcel sandwiched between Berliquet and Angelus. It offers fantastic value for money, with all the concentration and finesse so typical of the property. Full of rich blackcurrant and plum fruit so typical of the vintage, but complemented by just enough crunchier red fruits to create a wonderful refreshing elegance. This seriously over delivers for the price.

Tasted April 2022. Seamless and ethereal, the excellent terroir at Chateau Canon really shines in 2021. There's a fresh crushed rock, salty sensation running through the wine making it incredibly appetising, and precise, aromatic berry fruit in the core. A slow and steady fermentation this year has left the wine incredibly deep and complex, but weightless and elegant at the same time. 13.5%

Tasted April 2022. Aromatic and harmonious, but very tightly wound, 2021 from Château Canon-La-Gaffelière is full of refined dark fruit flavours, floral notes, mint and crushed rock aromas. Deeper, truffle and incense aromas develop on the palate. Well knit together and balanced, it has bright acidity and a spicy, peppery finish.

This Cheval Blanc is deep and brooding, with notes of pencil lead and spice around the dark fruit. It's finessed and classical, with lots of refined, elegant tannins. Really balanced, and long too, with a nice savouriness to the finish.

Tasted April 2022. Cheval Blanc in 2021 is tremendous, with the majority Cabernet Franc in the blend creating a lovely aromatic wine, with tension and persistence. Rich and concentrated, with very fine tannins and dense wild fruit flavours with lifted violets and dried flowers. There's a gravelly complexity and spice from high quality oak. The fruit is precise, ripe and fresh, with some brighter red fruit combining with fresh acidity to create a very appetising wine, helped by a saline, mineral-driven finish.

Medium deep in colour with a bright, purple-red core. This has lovely perfumed, ripe Morello cherry, loganberry and raspberry fruit on the nose and is piercing and pippy with such freshness. Some cool but ripe plum notes and great elegance on the attractive, natural palate. Flowing, balanced and poised with medium acidity and vibrant fresh fruit. The tannins are incredibly fine.

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.

Tasted April 2022. Frederic and the team at Figeac have created an incredible wine this year. Bold and perfectly ripe black fruits, there's a brooding quality to the fruit. Very fine and elegant, with all structural elements in good proportion. There's a lovely spiciness building and the tannins are firm now but tightly packed and ripe. Plenty of savoury and mineral notes on the long, textural finish.

Tasted April 2022. Good balance of ripe, dark fruit and sappier red fruits. Medium-bodied with fine tannins, it's a really charming, poised wine. There's a chalky texture and mineral flavours on the finish.

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.

In a vintage where La Gaffelière is one of the wines of the vintage, a hidden gem might just be the second wine, Clos de la Gaffelière. It shows the same purity of Merlot fruit that we've come to love with its bigger brother, with beautiful fragrance and a liquorice-toned finish. Really rather lovely.

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.

The 2020 Château La Gaffelière is another incredible wine from this estate, that's producing some of the finest wines on the right bank right now. Chiselled and precise, with lots of energy, this manages to balance the solar character of the vintage, with real purity and precision. An incredible wine, and one of the picks of the vintage.

Tasted April 2022. Raspberries and blackberries, fresh and ripe, mingle with light floral notes and black pepper in this medium-bodied, fresh style of Larcis-Ducasse. The savoury, mineral, umami notes carry on through the long finish. Quite restrained at the moment, but with plenty of complexity developing already.

Precise core of ripe fruit with a plush, velvety texture. There's crisp, bright acidity and that, along with some fine, bold tannins, shows this has a long life ahead of it. A perennial bargain.

99% Merlot with just a dash of Cabernet Franc, from deep clay soils. It's focused and intense, with amazing detailing and long and savoury tannins. This is a brilliant St-Emilion from an estate that gets better and better.

Tasted April 2022. Soft, ripe fruit with raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry. Slightly crunchier blueberry and raspberry on the finish. The tannins are silky and ripe, and the acidity is crisp but well balanced with the other elements of the wine.

Tasted April 2022. Deep, brooding and concentrated. Velvet texture and very fine tannins. The acidity is fresh but completely in balance with the depth of flavour in the wine. There are mineral, earthy, truffle notes developing and a long, persistent, moreish finish.

A wine with a huge cult following, tasting the 2020 you understand why Francois Mitjavile's wines are so well loved. This has opulent fruit yet a savouriness, huge tannins that are somehow elegant, and a finish that lasts minutes. He really is a magician.

The 2019 Tertre Roteboeuf is slightly closed on the nose, just teasing with berry fruit and violet notes. But on the palate there's tremendous weight and beautifully grippy tannins, with a hint of bitterness on the finish adding further complexity. Very long indeed, this is a sleeper, but will be brilliant.

Tasted 2021. Brick colour at the rim, with ethereal perfume and dried petals on the nose. Silky texture, mature black fruit flavours and a long finish.

An estate that's been on the march in recent years, this small château has produced another impressive wine in 2020. It's ripe and intense, with notes of violets and lots of blue fruit, while the finish is balanced and fresh. Punches above its weight.

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. Montaiguillon’s 2021 is another example of what incredible value this property represents. Situated in an elevated spot right on the border of St Emilion, the terroir is exceptional. This year the wine has concentrated blackberry, cassis and spiced plum fruit, but a distinct fresh red fruit character as well, giving amazing freshness. There are developing savoury, graphite, earthy notes beneath which will develop and integrate with age. This is a fantastic, balanced, classic Bordeaux for every occasion.

Tasted April 2022. Montaiguillon’s 2021 is another example of what incredible value this property represents. Situated in an elevated spot right on the border of St Emilion, the terroir is exceptional. This year the wine has concentrated blackberry, cassis and spiced plum fruit, but a distinct fresh red fruit character as well, giving amazing freshness. There are developing savoury, graphite, earthy notes beneath which will develop and integrate with age. This is a fantastic, balanced, classic Bordeaux for every occasion.

Montaguillon is a wine to buy every year, and the 2016 is an absolute case in point. Juicy fruit and a beautiful floral character entice you in, while a silky texture and a line of acidity ensure perfect balance. This is a wine that will give huge drinking pleasure: the perfect wine for every night of the week.

From the Ausone stable of wines, Moulin St-Georges is a smart buy in 2020. It's a generous yet impeccably balanced St-Emilion, that shows the success of merlot in the vintage.

Tasted April 2022. Concentrated and powerful, but still showing the characteristic freshness of the vintage. There's a mixture of ripe black fruit and crunchier red fruits, with a juiciness on the palate which broadens out into a long finish. The structural elements of the wine are tightly wound, but this has the potential to be fantastic with time in bottle. Tannins are ripe and bold at present. There's some lighter, herbal character and aromatics from 30% Cabernet Franc in the blend. 14%.

Second wine of Chateau Pavie, from limestone soils on the plateau, a 50:50 blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

The 2020 Pavie-Macquin is another lovely wine from this impressive Thienpont-owned estate. Fine tannins and intense fruit, with lots of spice and minerality on the finish. Really well put together in 2020.

Tasted April 2022. Seriously concentrated with tightly-packed black cherry and blueberry fruit. As the palate develops more mineral, saline notes emerge and rise to a long fresh finish. Broad and slightly creamy texture with grippy tannins. Really impressive.

"This is always an extremely masculine, dense, burly wine, and the 2010, which tips the scales at 14.5% alcohol (just slightly under that of the 2009), has a final blend of 80% Merlot and the rest virtually all Cabernet Franc, with just 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Loads of crushed rock and chalkiness, along with licorice, black truffle, smoked game and black fruits dominate the aromatics and flavor. Backward, formidably endowed, full-bodied and almost atypically massive and huge, with gargantuan extraction, this is a wine for patient connoisseurs to forget about for close to a decade. " 95+ points, Robert Parker

A fresh, bright, vibrant Saint-Emilion, from this estate’s 35 year old vines. Lovely fragrance and plenty of juicy fruit here. There’s good density, too. Nice length: impressive for the price.

Tasted April 2022. Puyblanquet was reacquired by Comte de Malet Roquefort in 2020, and we think this is one to watch. In 2021 it's 25% Cabernet Franc and this gives it a beautiful mineral, savoury quality. There's restrained red plum, blackberry and bramble fruits on the nose and some crushed dried flower, saline notes creating a lovely appetising complexity. The acidity is fresh and the wine is framed by fine tannins.

Château Quintus has been owned by Clarence Dillon since 2011: it takes its name from the Franco-Roman tradition of always calling a fifth son Quintus. The top wine, gets better every year, and is showing more and more of the breeding that makes the owners’ Pessac wines so highly prized.

Tasted April 2022. The 2021 Tertre de la Mouleyre is very fine, with pretty, bright fruits and floral notes. It's very elegant, and has plenty of depth to the dark fruit flavours. The texture is silky and there's an appetising, crushed rock sensation on the finish. Another brilliant vintage from a true gem of St-Emilion.

Floral and expressive, haunting aromatics with wonderful ripeness of fruit. Palate is very textured and fresh, and very saline. Impressive density and length on the finish. This is wonderful.