Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Fascinating aromas of crushed raspberries, stones and flowers. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated with fruit, wet concrete and walnut skin. A wine that is tight and structured. Needs time to soften. Try in 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a small, 10-acre property, owned by the Moueix family, at the heart of the Pomerol plateau. With its 30% Cabernet Franc it is perfumed and ripe, giving delicious black fruits as well as a firmer structure. The wine is set for a long aging with great potential. Drink from 2024.
Cellar Selection -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Hosanna followed the 2014 Latour-à-Pomerol at my tasting at J-P Moueix. To be frank, it did not quite possess the same breeding and precision as that wine, veering more towards red rather than black fruit, crushed strawberry and mulberry, tinged with clove and bay leaf. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and impressive fruit concentration. Here is the real quality: a structured and quite masculine Hosanna, albeit with genuine complexity, allspice and clove intermixed with dusky black fruit and freshly cracked black pepper. It finishes with a sense of confidence and style. Hopefully the aromatics can improve during bottle age; I strongly suspect that they will.
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Wine Spectator
Very dense, with a wall of ganache and loam holding the core of steeped fig, blackberry and black currant fruit in check for now. The tannins are evident yet ripe, and seem to be slowly melding with the fruit. The finish drips with dark earth notes. Patience is required. Best from 2020 through 2035.
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Decanter
From the JP Moueix stable. Dark fruit and cassis notes. Lovely weight and texture. Plentiful but fine tannins. Less overt power and more finesse than some years. But depth and structure all the same.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Hosanna is a perfect example of this vintage; classic, balanced, and elegant, with little in the way of wow factor yet loads of charm. Ripe currants, black cherries, tobacco leaf, forest floor, and hints of incense all emerge from this medium-bodied, elegant, sweetly fruited, and silky Pomerol that’s already drinking beautifully. Enjoy it anytime over the coming 15 years or so.
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.
A source of exceptionally sensual and glamorous red wines, Pomerol is actually a rather small appellation in an unassuming countryside. It sits on a plateau immediately northeast of the city of Libourne on the right bank of the Dordogne River. Pomerol and St-Émilion are the stars of what is referred to as Right Bank Bordeaux: Merlot-dominant red blends completed by various amounts of Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. While Pomerol has no official classification system, its best wines are some of the world’s most sought after.
Historically Pomerol attached itself to the larger and more picturesque neighboring region of St-Émilion until the late 1800s when discerning French consumers began to recognize the quality and distinction of Pomerol on its own. Its popularity spread to northern Europe in the early 1900s.
After some notable vintages of the 1940s, the Pomerol producer, Petrus, began to achieve great international attention and brought widespread recognition to the appellation. Its subsequent distribution by the successful Libourne merchant, Jean-Pierre Mouiex, magnified Pomerol's fame after the Second World War.
Perfect for Merlot, the soils of Pomerol—clay on top of well-drained subsoil—help to create wines capable of displaying an unprecedented concentration of color and flavor.
The best Pomerol wines will be intensely hued, with qualities of fresh wild berries, dried fig or concentrated black plum preserves. Aromas may be of forest floor, sifted cocoa powder, anise, exotic spice or toasted sugar and will have a silky, smooth but intense texture.