Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is really refined with intense tannin's that are wonderfully polished, yet powerful. So much crushed stone, mineral, blackberry and blueberry with black-olive and lavender undertones. It’s full-bodied with composure and purpose and a long finish. Chalk undertones. Tight at the end. Small production. Try after 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Grapes for this wine come from the plateau with yields of 30 hectoliters per hectare. Composed of 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon with a 3.5 pH and 14.56% alcohol, the deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Bellevue Mondotte slowly unfurls to offer profound scents of chocolate-covered cherries, preserved plums, blackberry compote and espresso, with hints of candied violets, tapenade, cast-iron pan and unsmoked cigars. The full-bodied, opulently fruited palate is laden with black fruit and earthy layers, supported by a solid foundation of firm, grainy tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing long and perfumed. It's tempting to drink now, but give it a good 5 years in bottle for maximum impact and drink it over the next 25 years or more.
Rating: 97+ -
Jeb Dunnuck
One of the more primordial, backward wines in the vintage, the 2018 Bellevue Mondotte is 90% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, brought up in new barrels. Dense purple-hued, it delivers a mineral-drench bouquet of chocolate-covered currants and black cherries as well as notes of camphor, loamy earth, graphite, and violets. Full-bodied and beautifully concentrated on the palate, it still has the vintage's pure, elegant, light on its feet style as well as plenty of background oak, ripe, silky tannins, and again, this wonderful sense of minerality. The cellar will be your friend. I'd give bottles at least 5-7 years, and it should keep for 30-40 years or more. It's an incredible Saint-Emilion.
Rating: 96+ -
Wine Spectator
Suave and alluring toast and melted licorice notes draped over a core of warmed plum, raspberry and blackberry confiture flavors make this a real headturner. Very polished and focused in feel, thanks to a buried graphite hint that keeps it all honest. Beautiful wine. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Decanter
The Perse wines this year are all of a very high standard, and there's no question that winemaking influence has been softened, but they remain at the extreme end of the scale of the appellation as a whole. Pumped up but pretty delicious on the palate, this wine is powerful and concentrated, rippling with - rather than constricted by - the tannins. The 2ha of 50-year-old vines (on average) produced a 30hl/ha yield in 2018. 100% new oak. 3.5pH.
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.