Plums and light stewed cherries with wet earth and lavender, following through to a full body with rich, velvety tannins that display roundness and firmness at the same time. Rather chewy. Needs two or three years to come around. Try after 2023.

Beautiful black cherry and blueberry fruits as well as spice, cedary pencil, violets, and chocolaty earth emerge from the 2018 Château Vieux Maillet. Medium to full-bodied, it has a rounded, elegant texture, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. Another gorgeous, outstanding Pomerol in 2018, it has some up-front appeal yet will evolve for 15+ years.

93+ The 2018 Vieux Maillet is a potent, deep Pomerol endowed with notable textural richness. Inky dark fruit, graphite, lavender, mint, chocolate, new leather and spice lend striking depth. This is a decidedly extroverted wine. My sense is that it is still recovering from bottling, as there is some tightness that needs to resolve. Vieux Maillet is a pretty hedonistic wine, but it has plenty of energy, too. -- Antonio Galloni

Highly spiced aromatics of ripe fruit, dark pepper and cloves. A savoury edge to the black fruits comes through on the palate, as does an attractively silky texture even with this high density of tannins. Flashes of bitter dark chocolate on the finish. 40% new oak.