Château La Mondotte 2018

This packs in some solid plum sauce, cassis and cherry reduction aromas and flavors, which hold sway throughout while hints of roasted alder, sweet tobacco and ganache fill in. Lovely, buried minerality keeps it all well-supported throughout. Built for the cellar. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2024 through 2038. 1,500 cases made.

Concentrated, as this wine often is, with a silky texture and rich damson fruits, layered deeply with liquorice and chocolate. The Neipperg polish is on display in abundance. This is serious, poised and impressive. A good decade needed here before opening. Certified organic.

Blackberry, plum, mushroom and wood undertones. It’s full-bodied with firm, ripe tannins. Savory, fleshy texture on the palate. Well balanced. Flavorful finish with length. Such polish and composure for a young wine. So classy! Try after 2026.

The 2018 La Mondotte, matured in 70% new oak, has retained a very focused and well-defined bouquet of intense cranberry, raspberry, sage and light marine scents. It is tightly packed and certainly benefits from decanting. The poised palate is medium-bodied with very pliant tannins, a fine bead of acidity and a silky-smooth texture. It then turns a little spicier, with desiccated orange peel and a background tang of marmalade emerging toward quite a complex and engaging finish. This is a fabulous La Mondotte that deserves cellaring.

This is a rich, lusciously textured, full-bodied, velvet-laced wine that is impossible not to be enthralled by. Inky dark in color, you find flowers, crushed stones, ripe, juicy, fresh, sweet blackberries, plums, cherries and assorted stone fruits. The intensity of the fruit, depth and concentration, coupled with its gorgeous purity, essences of licorice, espresso, smoke and tobacco leaf with a touch of mint, is there from start to finish. This is going to be a cellar treasure that will age and evolve for 2–3 decades with ease. The wine blends 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc. Only 1,600 cases were produced.

Dark ruby, purple reflections, faint ochre brightening on the rim. Multi-faceted bouquet with dark forest fruits, ripe black cherry, candied violet, some nougat and cedar. Taut and tightly meshed on the palate, red cherry, very lively structure, vivid, ripe tannins, elegant and long. Has charm and definite ageing potential; an irresistible wine with great drinking flow.

Coming from a cool terroir situated near Pavie Decesse and based on 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, the 2018 La Mondotte reveals a dense purple hue to go with a rich, yet classic, regal, full-bodied style delivering impressive blue fruits, graphite, scorched earth, and liquid violet aromas and flavors. It's concentrated and powerful, yet it's the balance, purity of fruit, and quality of tannins that set it apart. Do your best to hide bottles for 5-7 years, and it's going to evolve for 30+.

Kunz barrel sample 19: (75% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 40 hl/ha) Concentrated, complex, fresh, velvety bouquet, cherry compote, strawberry jelly, mint, fine herbs, eucalyptus, slate, flint, rosemary. Concentrated, multi-layered, creamy, aromatic, fresh palate with creamy, sweet fruit, plenty of fine tannin, tightly interwoven structure, varied, powerful aromatics, muscular, creamy frame, very long, spicy, aromatic finish. 21: René Gabriel: Almost unbelievably dark, purple-violet, virtually impenetrable at the core. Powerful bouquet, showing berries in every form and of high ripeness, multi-layered with great drive. At the moment it is quite talkative. On the second nose it releases licorice, Bourbon vanilla, black cherry flesh and Arabica coffee. You can also sense an almost incomparable Merlot perfume. On the palate already full of harmony, graceful, with silky tannins. Towards the mid-palate it gathers and stretches into tremendous length. Finesse and power are the two key elements here. Thus, this Mondotte is as perfect as no predecessor has been so unreservedly. A charming giant!

Concentrated, complex, velvety, fruity bouquet: black cherries, slate, flint, tobacco squares, cassis, dark pralines, licorice, dried fruits. Concentrated, multi-layered, powerful palate with creamy, dense fruit; diverse, intense, dark aromatics; a concentrated, finely muscular structure; plenty of fine tannins; a very long, powerful finish with many sweet lingering flavors. 20/20 2027 - 2060

La Mondotte 2018 is deep garnet-purple in color. It bursts with scents of baked plums, Christmas pudding, and incense, plus notes of dried mint and unsmoked cigars. Medium to full-bodied, firm and a tad chewy, yet with loads of decadent blue fruit and savory layers, it delivers a long, exotic, spice-laced finish.

Silky, creamy tannins carried by a very ample structure that unfolds with subtlety from the mid-palate through to the finish. Remarkably fine and fresh grain.

In this heat-driven vintage, La Mondotte holds back, delivering a pared-down bouquet still in reserve, biding its time to reveal its elegant poise. The terroir’s freshness rises through the interstices of a palate with firm definition, radiant fruit, and a velvety finish.

The nose is fresh, very elegant, with a lovely fine grain, subtlety and beautiful precision, like a square of silk. It reveals notes of wild blackberry, raspberry and, more slightly, ripe purple plum, along with delicate hints of violet, fine touches of camphor, very subtle hints of pepper, a very discreet touch of tobacco and an imperceptible hint of sense of place. The palate is fruity, beautifully elegant and offers indulgence, depth, a slight airy feel, very fine grain, and gorgeous pulpy/tangy/juicy fruit with a fine, lively backbone. On the palate, this wine shows notes of bright blackcurrant, bright purple plum and, more slightly, tangy raspberry, with small touches of little red berries as well as fine hints of fresh violet, chocolate, licorice, a discreet touch of rose, toasted hazelnut, sense of place, a subtle touch of sweet blond tobacco and an imperceptible hint of star anise (in the background). Good length. A very lovely tangy (racy) persistence.