Chateau d'Armailhac 2018

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Chateau d'Armailhac  2018  Front Bottle Shot
Chateau d'Armailhac  2018  Front Bottle Shot Chateau d'Armailhac  2018  Front Label Chateau d'Armailhac  2018 A Closer Look at the 2018 Vintage Product Video

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2018

Size
750ML

ABV
14.5%

Your Rating

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

Blend: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot

Professional Ratings

  • 95

    Complex aromas of blackcurrant, black olive, clove, oyster shell, pencil lead and tobacco. It’s full-bodied with firm, tightly knit tannins. Concentrated and focused with a very long, spice and mineral finish. Fantastic bottle. Try from 2026.

  • 94

    Armailhac has held its success from en primeur and has further gained in weight during ageing. This is a wine that is changing a little in style, deepening in profile and upping the new oak for ageing from 30% to 50% (and staying in barrel for a little longer). Unusually high alcohols for this corner of Pauillac, likely from the concentration that happened in September on the Armailhac gravels (there is less clay in the soil at this spot). It comes through in a rich mouthfeel, chewy tannins and chocolate-covered damson fruits. 5% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Bottled mid-May. New winery under way. Drinking Window 2026 - 2044

  • 93

    The core of ripe cassis, plum sauce and raspberry purée flavors have a succulent feel, while licorice snap, graphite and singed alder notes play along the edges. Nice glycerine feel through the focused and fine-grained finish. Tempting now, but time will bring more nuance. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Best from 2022 through 2035.

  • 93

    Awesome notes of camphor, new leather, cedar pencil, chocolate, and cassis emerge from the 2018 Château D'Armailhac, a full-bodied, concentrated Pauillac that stays nicely focused on the palate, with firm yet ripe tannins, wonderful purity, and a great finish. In short, it's a classic Pauillac that needs 4-6 years of bottle age and should have two decades of prime drinking. Rating: 93+

  • 93

    Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 D’Armailhac (a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot) hits the ground running with wonderfully open-knit, flamboyant scents of Morello cherries, black raspberries, blackcurrant jelly and rose oil, leading to an undercurrent of cinnamon toast, aniseed and mossy tree bark. The medium to full-bodied palate is charged with energy and expressiveness, delivering red and black berry layers with loads of spicy sparks, framed by plush tannins, finishing long and fragrant. Rating : 93+

  • 93

    A ripe, juicy wine with great freshness and swathes of black-currant fruits, this is already delicious. Plenty of tannins back up the fruits and push the wine towards a rich future, but the balance is already there. Drink this wine from the Mouton-Rothschild stable from 2025.

  • 93
    COMMENTARY: The 2018 Château d’Armailhac is one of the vintage stars. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with forceful aromas and flavors of black fruit and oak. Enjoy is polished presence with a grilled, well-marbled ribeye. (Tasted: June 25, 2021, San Francisco, CA)

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Chateau d'Armailhac

Chateau d'Armailhac

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Chateau d'Armailhac, France
Chateau d'Armailhac Château d'Armailhac Winery Image

An 1855 Classified Growth, Château d’Armailhac is bordered to the north by Château Mouton Rothschild. It has 76 hectares (187 acres) of south-facing vines with an average age of 40 years, stretching over three gravel banks that embrace all the typical features of the Pauillac appellation.

The terroir, mostly comprising deep gravel, clay or clay-limestone and gravelly sand, is planted with classic Médoc grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon (55%), Merlot (35%), Cabernet Franc (8%) and Petit Verdot (2%).

The Cabernet Franc vines, which have an average age of 60 years, are mostly planted on the Plateau des Levantines, an ideal terroir in which they can put down deep roots. Derived from ancestral massal selections, these remarkable Cabernet Francs make up a relatively high proportion of the blend and are a hallmark of the wine.

Château d’Armailhac takes its name from the d’Armailhacq family who purchased the estate in 1660. Its history is bound up with that of pioneers of modern winegrowing such as Armand d’Armailhac. 

The estate was acquired by Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) in 1933, then inherited by his daughter Philippine de Rothschild (1933-2014). It now belongs to her three children, Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, who, with passion and the same attachment to the terroir, continue the family’s quest for excellence and innovation in the vineyard and winery.

Château d’Armailhac is a fine wine, typical of the Pauillac appellation, with an elegant classicism regardless of the vintage, and a robust and refined tannic structure.


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One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.

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Pauillac Wine

Bordeaux, France

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The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.

While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.

Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.

Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.

GNC520426_2018 Item# 520426

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