Winemaker Notes
Blend: 38% Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 36% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Château Bellevue is up there with the finest wines to date from this Château. All Merlot from clay and limestone soils, it has beautiful cherry, candied violet, and chalky minerality in its medium to full-bodied, concentrated, balanced profile. I like its tannins, it has plenty of mid-palate depth, and a great finish.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
James Suckling
Refined and broad on the palate, this medium- to full-bodied red offers layers of ripe dark fruit and hints of cedar, walnuts, smoke, licorice and stones. It’s wide and complex but not heavy, with polished, almost silky tannins and some mineral complexity in its long, even aftertaste.
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Decanter
Smells lovely, rich and ripe, dark fruits. Supple, lively and bright red berry fruit with quite grippy tannins on the palate, but balanced with an enjoyable texture that's not too dry, austere or raw. Compact and tight, but feels well worked, lovely detail and bite to the fruit with appealing minty freshness and long length. This has great promise.
Barrel Sample: 93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Entirely crafted from Merlot planted on clay-limestone slopes, the 2022 Bellevue reveals a deep, complex bouquet of cassis, blackberries, flowers and spices. Medium to full-bodied, enrobing and seamless, it's layered and concentrated and framed by a fleshy core of fruit and an energetic, fresh mid-palate, concluding with a long, perfumed and lively finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
One of the best Bordeaux Superieurs I have tasted recently, the 2022 Chateau Bellevue is stylish and generous. This wine shows aromas and flavors of fragrant spices, chalky notes, and early summer blackberries. Enjoy it with slow-cooked lamb shanks. (Tasted: January 11, 2025, San Francisco, CA)
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.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.