Underlines just how exciting this estate has become in recent years. So much flavour, juice and texture, layers of pleasure, campfire, gunsmoke, steel, raspberry, umami texture with contrast between the creamy ripe fruit coupled with pumice and crushed stones, juicy lift, a ton of pleasure finessed and powerful, exceptional quality and a signal that Bélair-Monanage has really come into its own, Harvest September 8 to 20, Moueix family.

This has an opulence that’s reined in by the crushed-stone and fine-tannin character. It's full-bodied with tight and polished tannins that have energy and precision. Very linear and structured. This comes from great limestone soils that give this wine a freshness and focus. Salty and chalky at the end. Drink after 2030.

The 2022 Château Belair-Monange comes from a mix of both the upper plateau and the hillsides just outside of Saint-Emilion, with the blend being 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. It has a truly sensational perfume of black raspberries, mulled cherries, crushed stone, and graphite that gains intensity and nuances as it sits in the glass. This gives way to a full-bodied Saint-Emilion with a deep, layered texture, velvety tannins, no hard edges, and a gorgeous finish. I'd easily put this up with the crème de la crème of the vintage, and to my mind, it’s even better than the Château’s 2012, 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020. While it's beautiful even today, I have no doubt this will evolve gracefully for 30 years if well stored.

Dark in color, the wine struts its flowers, licorice, plums, espresso, spice and chocolate-covered black cherry aromatics with just a single swirl. The palate is even better with its lush, silky, vibrant, mouth-coating layers of fruits that start and seemingly keep on going long after the wine has left your glass. Nothing is out of place. Everything is balanced, harmonious, and vibrant, with intensity and purity that stands out. The wine blends 98% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2027-2060. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-tasting-note/?vintage=2022&wine=Chateau%20Belair-Monange

A smoky nose filled with aromatic blackcurrants, violets, dark chocolate, vanilla cream and clove. Deep, layered and cooling, this is a gentle giant - you can feel the waves of power and the depth of flavour but it's so calm and controlled. Wonderfully finessed tannins, pure black bramble fruit and appealing crushed stone elements. Extremely classy, this feels so well executed, a restrained hand in terms of winemaking and oak given the integration of the tannins and beautiful cool and fresh tones from start to finish. Less overt acidity than some, this really focuses on the construction and layering of elements. Serious but seductive. A sophisticated wine that belies the vintage conditions.

The 2022 Bélair-Monange is even better in bottle than it was en primeur. Seamless in the glass, with stunning purity, the 2022 is magnificently complete from start to finish. Brisk acids and cool veins of supporting minerality cut through a core of ripe red/purplish berry fruit, lavender, blood orange and mocha. The 2022 is the most impressive Bélair-Monange under the Moueix family's stewardship. Superb. -- Antonio Galloni

This flagship Moueix wine is 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, and it suggests wonderful density and purity combined on the nose, with blackcurrant, juniper, garden mint and tobacco. The palate is fresh and elegantly composed, with a sweet and finely polished core of dried berry fruits, with rose petals, peonies and rosemary, wrapped around a tightly strung frame of confident tannins, which give the wine a serious grip but which never seem to dominate. Beautifully composed, with such energy in the finish, this is surely the best Bélair-Monange yet – presumably those grandiose new cellars on the hilltop above St Emilion have something to do with that? The long finish, elegantly formed yet riven with ripe tannins, suggest it will go the distance as well.

Ripe and caressing in feel, with delicious boysenberry and black cherry compote flavors that roll through, with notes of black licorice, bay and chestnut. Alder and warm humus accents frame the finish as chalky minerality lingers amid the fruit. Large in scale but reserved in style. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2028 through 2042. — J.M.

The 2022 Belair Monange opens in the glass with aromas of jammy blackberries, licorice, smoked meats and mocha. Full-bodied, layered and dense, with chalky tannins and a carnal finish, the estate's limestone soils translate into the liveliest wine in the Mouiex portfolio this year, despite its super-ripe profile. - William Kelley