The 2022 Château Valandraud is sensational, offering a massive array of blackcurrants, chocolate, smoked tobacco, baking spices, and truffly earth. Full-bodied and deeply layered, it has a velvety mouthfeel, polished tannins, and remarkable purity. It reminds me of a hypothetical blend of the 2020 and 2019. Based on 85% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, it was vinified and aged 22 months in new barrels. It will evolve gracefully for 20-30 years.

The showy nose delivers its array of licorice, camphor, incense, espresso, blackberries, and blueberries effortlessly. The wine is rich, creamy, and frankly luxurious as it caresses your palate with waves of smooth, polished, velvety fruits. And, even with all this concentration, density, and intensity, the wine has enough lift, and freshness to feel almost light on its feet! This represents a new level of quality for Valandraud, and that's saying something. The wine blends 88% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2027-2055.98 Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2022%20Valandraud

A rich, glossy Valandraud delivered in a plush but polished mode. Showing lots of new wood, cocoa nibs, mocha, espresso and pine cones to the dense blackberries and a touch of roasted red peppers. Full with immense concentration, this has compact fruit and bold, dusty tannins. You hardly catch the high alcohol here with such intensity. Balanced at a high pitch. Big, voluptuous but beautiful too. 36,200 bottles made. Give it three more years to let the wood spices integrate. Drink from 2028.

Inky plum in colour, opens with an immediate caress of supple tannins with violet, rose and peony, liquorice root, textured, rich but reserved with a tug of graphite, slate and crayon. This is a really impressive Valandraud, excellent quality, clearly decades of ageing ahead of it. Jean-Luc Thunevin owner, harvest September 15 to October 5, 100% new oak.

The 2022 Valandraud is fabulous. Rich and plush, with no hard edges, the 2022 is an exotic beauty. I imagine it will need the better part of a decade to be approachable, as its fruit intensity and tannic heft are both notable. Inky dark red/purplish fruit, new leather, tobacco and baking spice all build in the glass. The 2022 deftly balances opulence and finesse in grand style. Tasted two times. -- Antonio Galloni

At 15.5% there's no getting round this is one of the highest alcohols among the 2022s but it very much works with the vintage offering a heady, concentrated nose followed by powerful, yet sleek profile on the palate. Really juicy and alive, the acidity is brilliant and lifts the red berry fruit flavours with chalky tannins giving the intensity towards the finish. There are flashes of heat but there's also cooling minerality and salty touches without any overt toastiness which is so pleasant. I tasted this a little colder - cellar cold - and I think that really works in its favour. Gorgeous purity, finesse and approachability.

Alluring singed alder and black tea accents lead the way, followed by a dense core of steeped blackberry and black currant fruit. A swath of licorice root, warm earth and tobacco coats the finish, with the fruit keeping pace. Lengthy and velvety in feel, this is almost approachable now. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2026 through 2040. — J.M.

As usual this young Valandraud absolutely bursts with highly toasted oaky aromas on the nose, all matchstick and cedar, combined with some dark yet overtly perfumed fruit. The palate follows up with a rich layer of concentrated black summer fruits, all black cherry with layers of tobacco, tar and liquorice, with a salty black bean intensity, set in a rich texture, with a supple weight, glossy and creamed, yet smoky and firm. It culminates in a big and bold style, where I find more than a streak of alcohol, it being particularly evident in the warm and peppery finish. This will no doubt find its fans;for my own pleasure I would prefer a little less alcohol, although the definition of the fruit has charm, and the heavy application of oak will fade with time too. Valandraud seems to age well despite its occasionally rather hedonistic showing in its youth, so perhaps this one deserves a chance. - Chris Kissack