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The blend pays tribute to the Right Bank’s black grape variety, so the Carillon d’Angelus 2017 expresses all the smoothness and opulence of Merlot (90%) with the elegance of Cabernet Franc (10%) that brings finesse to distinguish the wine. With its beautiful dark color, the Carillon d’Angelus 2017 instantly charms with its bewitching aromatic bouquet. The nose discovers ample and pure fresh fruit aromas. The palate starts with a sumptuous attack that reveals the magnitude of the vintage’s personality. The generous concentration extends to a powerful finish that ends in elegance and harmony.

James Suckling: 93-94Pts; Wine Enthusiast: 91-92Pts; Vinous: 92Pts; Decanter: 91Pts; Robert Parker: 90Pts

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Clinet opens slowly to reveal vibrant red and black fruits: red currants, black cherries, plums and cassis with touches of roses, yeast extract, wood smoke and crushed rocks. Medium-bodied with firm, grainy tannins and a taut, muscular palate of tightly wound fruits and compelling mineral accents, it finishes long with wonderful purity and fragrant earth accents. The tannins here will need 4-5 years of bottle age, and I’d lean toward drinking bottles over the following decade. 

The 2016 Ausone is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc picked 10-14 October and 14-19 October, respectively, at 40 hectoliters per hectare. It is matured in 80% new oak with a light toasting, a move that Alain and Pauline Vauthier have made in recent years just to lessen the impact of the oak.

There is a palpable stateliness about the Ausone this year. It is extraordinarily pure and articulates its terroir as well as any vintage that I can remember over the last 20-odd years. It is not as flamboyant as other Saint Emilions, more correct and precise. The palate is very elegant and precise. I adore the exquisite balance of this Ausone, the precision and fineness of the tannin, the effortlessness that it conveys. This is classy and sophisticated, satin-like in texture with a long and sensual finish.

Not an Ausone that is going to blaze across the sky, this is a cerebral, intellectual Ausone that will entrance for many years to come.

Chateau Croizet-Bages 2000’s deep ruby/purple color is accompanied by creamy, black currant, cedar, and toast aromas, excellent purity, a rich, medium-bodied style, and sweet tannin in the moderately long finish. This lovely effort offers loads of fruit, sweet tannin, medium body, admirable delineation as well as purity, and surprising length.

Wine Enthusiast: 94Pts; James Suckling: 93 Pts; Robert Parker: 92 Pts; Wine Spectator: 91 Pts

Deep, dense colour with glints of violet. Very expressive nose with black fruit and subtle notes of toast. On the palate, the attack is powerful, dense and structured. The mid-palate is full-bodied, with a fine, well-balanced tannic structure. The finish has plenty of volume with superbly ripened tannins, while remaining elegant and refined, thanks to the quality of the grapes of this exceptional vintage.

Made from 84% Merlot and 16% Cabernet Franc brought up in plenty of new oak, its ruby/plum color is followed by an awesome bouquet of blackberry jam, smoked meats, licorice, truffle, and hints of chocolate. Thick, opulent, super ripe, and decadent, with a full-bodied mouthfeel that needs to be tasted to be believed, it still stays balanced and fresh on the palate and is already impossible to resist. It’s going to keep for 3+ decades.

Robert Parker: 100Pts; Falstaff: 100Pts; The Wine Cellar Insider: 100Pts; Wine Spectator: 97Pts; James Suckling: 97Pts

Rocas is a blend of 38% Malbec, 25% Syrah, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Grenache, 8% Petit Verdot, aged for 22 months, in French oak barrels (65% new).  The 2020 vintage of Rocas de Seña has a beautiful purple colour. Subtle aromas of coffee and Asian spices with a touch of mocha from the oak create a very deep and complex nose.  The palate is vibrant and tense with good density and shows multiple layers of fresh fruits, spices, and balsamic notes with a hint of smoke. It displays great freshness and a smooth texture with a long and juicy finish.  This is a very elegant and splendidly youthful wine.  

Descorchados: 95Pts; Wine Enthusiast: 94Pts; Falstaff: 94Pts; Tim Atkin: 93Pts; WinesCritic.com: 92Pts

Crafted from organically-grown grapes

Lillet is a classic French Aperitif, crafted in the Bordeaux region since 1872. It is a blend of Bordeaux wine, macerated liqueurs (mostly citrus) and quinine which bring a delicious bitterness. Lillet Rose is made with Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon and shows light aromas of berries, orange blossom and grapefruit; Fresh, lively and fruity. Great served very chilled or in cocktails.

Medium to full-bodied, the palate has jaw-dropping elegance and depth, offering up layer upon layer of fragrant red and black fruits plus an extraordinary array of mineral sparks, supported by a rock-solid grainy texture, finishing with epic persistence and an edifying perfume. This is a very different style from the rich, opulently hedonic 2015, yet this wonderfully fragrant, beautifully poised and intellectually compelling 2016 is equally extraordinary.

This label dedicated to Maurizio Zanella is the perfect synthesis of the Cantina’s history, its values of excellence and the vocation of the Franciacorta territory to produce also great reds for ageing. A Bordeaux blend with a strong personality and character, among the most interesting Italian expressions of this type of wine. In the glass, it has an intense ruby-red colour. The bouquet expresses the aromas of small berries, blackberry and blueberry jam, spices, and woody and balsamic hints. The palate has an important structure with deep aromas, a tannic texture well integrated with the body of the wine and pleasant freshness.

Veronelli :94Pts; xtraWine: 93Pts
Crafted from organically-grown grapes

Aged for about a year in oak, the wine has a beautiful red burgundy dress with garnets notes. Fine and supple, this wine reveal on the palate a round and smooth body. Served at 16 degrees, it will be delicious to accompany cooked meats, roasted meat and grilled fish.

An amazing wine in every sense, this classic, full-bodied Pauillac is the quintessential Pontet Canet from proprietor Alfred Tesseron, who continues to reduce yields and farms his vineyards biodynamically a rarity in Bordeaux. Black as a moonless night, the 2009 Pontet Canet offers up notes of incense, graphite, smoke, licorice, creme de cassis and blackberries.

A wine of irrefutable purity, laser-like precision, colossal weight and richness, and sensational freshness, this is a tour de force in winemaking that is capable of lasting 50 or more years. The tannins are elevated, but they are sweet and beautifully integrated as are the acidity, wood and alcohol (which must be in excess of 14%). This vineyard, which is situated on the high plateau of Pauillac adjacent to Mouton Rothschild, appears to have done everything perfectly in 2009. This cuvee should shut down in the cellar and re-open in a decade or more.

The wines of Chateau Pontet-Canet obtained organic certification from Ecocert and biodynamic certification from Biodyvin in 2010 and from Demeter in 2014.