Château La Dominique 2023

Sweet cherries and flowers in the perfume let you know everything you need to know that is going to be a nice wine. Elegant is the keyword here. The wine is medium-bodied, soft, refined, silky and fresh with a good sense of purity to the sweet red fruits on the palate and in the finish. Just a year or two in the bottle will add a lot to the experience. The wine blends 88% Merlot, with 12% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2028-2045.

Deep dark ruby, opaque core, purple reflections. Fine oak nuances, black cherry fruit, blackberries, some liquorice, orange zest. Juicy and fruity, elegant texture, vivid with spicy tannins, chocolatey finish, a deep food wine with certain ageing potential.

Seductive red- and blue-berried bouquet, fresh raspberry purée, blackcurrant nectar and beguiling violet perfume. A complex palate with a creamy texture, tightly knit tannic framework, wonderful extract richness, a straight-lined body, dense and precise. In the concentrated, long finish, sour cherry juice, graphite and finely powdery extract. A safe bet from St.-Émilion.

Sleek ruby red, well-judged extraction and use of oak, this is a great-quality La Dominique, continuing a run of enjoyable vintages at this property under the team of Gwendeline Lucas and winemaker Yann Monties. Plenty of estate and appellation signature: sweet damson, black cherry, pomegranate and stone fruits, campfire smoke, clove spice and juicy lift, with a lingering, mouthwatering finish. Julien Viaud consultant. Tasted twice. 49 hl/ha yield. Harvest from September 6 to 28, subdividing plots, including leaving the beginnings and ends of the rows for later picking. Aged in a mix of amphoras, wine globes, concrete eggs, 50% new oak.

Score: 93–95. Dark and serious at first, it then opens to the opulence of small red and black berries and the softness of an armful of old roses, balanced by the finesse of white pepper. The wine gains breadth on the palate, the velvety tannins adding an extra dimension to a sun-kissed, radiant texture, all in finesse. A long, mouthwatering finish.

The nose is nicely crafted, pleasantly spicy, offering a gentle grain intensity and fine concentration, with depth and a delicate peppery edge. It reveals notes of plump blackberry, fleshy pulpy black berries and, more lightly, blueberry, combined with subtle hints of Sichuan pepper, delicate infusion-like touches, and a discreet nuance reminiscent of roasted herbs in the background. The palate is nicely juicy, fruity and balanced. It offers a fresh framework, juiciness, indulgence, fine definition, silkiness and delicacy, along with a lovely supple, fresh and textured grain in the mid-palate, sapidity, a refined linear elegance and an almost discreetly airy feel. It expresses notes of juicy/plump blackberry, fresh/plump blue plum and, more lightly, vibrant raspberry, joined by touches of juicy, bright small berries, as well as hints of cardamom, mocha and toast, plus fine nuances almost like fresh blueberry/fresh lily, along with a very discreet, almost sappy note in the background, delicate touches of graphite, toast and elegant light roasting in the background, and a saline hint. Lovely attention to detail and precision. A nice touch of suppleness and sapidity on the finish/through the persistence. Nice suppleness and a discreetly granular feel on the finish/through the persistence.

Beautiful floral aromatics, pot pourri and fresh flowers – smells gorgeous, roses, raspberries and red cherries with some milk chocolate and blueberries too. Nicely alive on the palate, upfront and forward, a juicy undercurrent lifting the structure. Clean and clear with a soft chalkiness to the ripe but cool red and blue fruits. Perhaps not as plump as usual, but there’s real finesse to the tannins, fruit and acidity. Lots of wet stones and graphite touches with a minty menthol element at the end. Excellent definition, there’s no faulting the precision on show. Great work from Gwendeline Lucas and winemaker Yann Monties with consultant Julien Viaud. 60% grand vin production. A yield of 49hl/ha. 3.85pH. Earliest and longest harvest at the estate, starting on September 6 until the 28 for the Merlots and from September 28 to October 3 for the Cabernets. Ageing 50% in new oak.

Earth and singed cedar notes guide a core of lightly mulled plum and black cherry fruit, with tobacco and chestnut accents on the finish, which shows a slightly extracted edge. Should settle in with a touch of cellaring. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2027 through 2035.