Winemaker Notes
#5 Jeb Dunnuck Top 100 of 2025
Blend: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, 2.5% Petit Verdot, 1.5% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Awesome levels of blackcurrants, darker cherries, roasted herbs, chocolate, and scorched earth all emerge from the 2022 Château Malartic-Lagravière, an incredibly concentrated, rich, layered beauty that has velvety tannins, a deep, layered mid-palate, and a blockbuster finish. It's easily the finest I've tasted from this château and is a riveting 2022 that deserves 4-6 years in the cellar and will keep for two decades or more. The 2022 is based on 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, with the élevage spanning 20 months in 60% new French oak. There are a little over 8,000 cases of this brilliant wine.
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James Suckling
A fascinating Malartic-Lagraviere from this hot vintage, but the wine is surprisingly fresh, showing depth, innate balance and complexity. The mineral-etched fruit turns glossy, with fine aromas of cassis, berries, plums, spices and a hint of violets. Almost full-bodied, with a complete package of fruit and chalky tannins. Long, juicy and posh. One of the best ever.
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Decanter
Gorgeous fragrant red berry fruit on the nose, a touch of dried herbs and graphite. So super charming straight away, this is gorgeous. Creamy and juicy so you get both a crunchy bite to the fruit as well as a soft pillowy texture on the palate. Round, focused and really finessed but delivering so much flavour. Not overdone at all, this is restrained - almost lightweight - letting the crystalline fruit, acidity and integrated tannins speak clearly. Harmonised and balanced still with tension and poise. A real joy with plenty of ageing potential.
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Vinous
The 2022 Malartic Lagraviere is a pretty sexy wine, its considerable tannins notwithstanding. A blast of dark cherry, plum, licorice, chocolate, new leather and spice makes a strong opening statement. The 2022 is dense and packed to the core, with formidable intensity of fruit and equally imposing tannins. This is a brute.
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Wine Enthusiast
The licorice aroma of this powerful wine and the solid tannins and dense texture are all impressive. It has concentrated black fruits and a structure that promises some serious aging. Drink from 2028.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Warm plum, black currant and black cherry compote notes cruise through slowly, inlaid with singed alder and black tea. Warm earth, bay and burnished leather hints keep the finish nicely grounded. Very solid. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 56% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Petit Verdot and 0.5% Cabernet Franc, the 2022 Malartic Lagravière reveals a classic, elegant bouquet of cassis, mulberries, flowers and spices. Medium to full-bodied and round, it's elegantly juicy with a generously extracted structure leading the way to an assertive, structured tannic frame, concluding with a spicy, long finish. Notably, the blend has shifted since the en primeur tasting, lending the wine a more introverted character.
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.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.