Winemaker Notes
Blend: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Brooding on the nose, with fresh blackberries and dried flowers. The palate is marked by richly textured dark-fruit flavors, showing firm, incisive tannins and a vibrant acidity that holds everything together. Very attractive and structured. A blend of 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% merlot. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
A powerful wine, with rich tannins and grand black-currant, flavors, this is structured and balanced. With its black-chocolate aroma introducing succulent acidity and a dry core, the wine will age well. Aged in oak and amphorae. Cellar Selection
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Decanter
Lovely floral and blackcurrant aromatics on the nose, smells open and expressive with some clear, herbal and bramble notes. Clean and direct, the mouthwatering cherry and strawberry juiciness is lovely though with a chalky base. Crystalline and pure, straight and linear, not as fleshy as some, but really well balanced. Smooth and really approachable with a lift on the finish. Missing some more flesh and weight, but there’s great coolness and lots of finesse. Tannins are fine and integrated and this carries to a long finish. Feels very cool and very classic minty Cabernet. Effortless and gently wide. A yield of 47hl/ha. 3.69pH. Ageing 30% new oak.
Barrel Sample: 93 -
Vinous
The 2023 Belgrave is a stellar wine and one of the sleepers in this vintage. Rich and layered in the glass, with terrific persistence, the 2023 has so much to offer. Succulent dark cherry, plum, mocha, spice and new leather all meld together in this wonderfully expressive, nuanced Haut-Medoc. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot with no Petit Verdot in this vintage. The 2023 is a very fine mini Saint-Julien of sorts, and I mean that in the best sense of the term. Tasted two times. -Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Belgrave is a notable success in this vintage, revealing aromas of dark wild berries, flowers, dark cherries and licorice. Medium- to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it is well-balanced and framed by powdery tannins that extend into a long, mineral finish marked by a distinctly Médocain character.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Complex red, blue, and black fruits, saddle leather, savory flowers, and incense all define the 2023 Château Belgrave, a medium-bodied, concentrated Haut-Médoc with good mid-palate density and tons of character. Based on 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot from deep gravel and gravel on clay soils, aged in oak barrels with 29% new oak and a portion in amphora, it has ripe, building tannins and a great finish.
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.
One of the most—if not the most—famous red wine regions of the world, the Medoc reaches from the city of Bordeaux northwest along the left bank of the Gironde River almost all the way to the Atlantic. Its vineyards climb along a band of flatlands, sandwiched between the coastal river marshes and the pine forests in the west. The entire region can only claim to be three to eight miles wide (at its widest), but it is about 50 miles long.
While the Medoc encompasses the Haut Medoc, and thus most of the classed-growth villages (Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe) it is really only those wines produced in the Bas-Medoc that use the Medoc appellation name. The ones farther down the river, and on marginally higher ground, are eligible to claim the Haut Medoc appellation, or their village or cru status.
While the region can’t boast a particularly dramatic landscape, impressive chateaux disperse themselves among the magically well-drained gravel soils that define the area. This optimal soil draining capacity is completely necessary and ideal in the Medoc's damp, maritime climate. These gravels also serve well to store heat in cooler years.