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

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...

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...

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...

The 2015 La Lagune has never really shown as well as it might. However, this bottle, poured blind, suggests that this has suddenly "awoken". It has a well-defined, estuarine-tinged bouquet with blackberry, wild hedgerow...

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...

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...

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...

(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%...

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...

A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2021 Beychevelle has a deep garnet-purple color. It needs plenty of swirling to coax out notes of ripe blackcurrants, Bing...

A stunning, monumental Margaux, this has all the power, concentration and class expected of a First Growth. Cool on the palate with an emerging floral bouquet after a few minutes swirling in the glass, Asian spices also...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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...

A rich, lush, concentrated, forward, supple-styled wine that is open from the first sniff, and sip. The opulent wine is packed with espresso dark chocolate, and even darker, red pit fruits. The wine is deep and lush on...

Sleek and polished, with alluring notes of blackberry puree and warmed cassis that glide through, while fine-grained tannins, a buried chalky spine and a gilding of sweet tobacco add range and length. Shows a...

The blend is 71% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, at the upper end of the usual range of percentages for the Merlot, and the élevage was in one-third new oak for twelve months, the...

The blend is 86% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot, with a 2% dash of Petit Verdot. Lovely classicism and freshness on the nose here, dark and brooding, yet perfumed as well, with fragrant red cherry, blackberry, olive...

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...

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...

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...

The 2009 Grand Mayne has an opulent bouquet with well defined kirsch and red plum aromas, hints of cough candy emerge with time. It remains focused and precise. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, layers of...