Winemaker Notes
The freshness and the balance of this vintage combine with the brilliance of the fruit and velvety texture, with a ample yet complex tannic structure, reflecting the true signature of Malartic’s terroir.
Blend: 82.6% Merlot, 12.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5.1% Petit Verdot
The Barrel Sample for this wine is under 14% ABV.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has tile, stone and dusty-soil character to the dark fruit and plums. It’s full-bodied and extremely refined with beautiful tannins and fruit. Currants and light chocolate at the end. Second wine.
Barrel Sample: 93-94 -
Decanter
A lovely 2nd wine, soft grilled caramel around the edges of plump black fruits, well judged extraction and great freshness through the palate. No need to wait to enjoy this as the tannins are so carefully integrated, but it still has impact and elegance, and a real reminder of the first wine.
Barrel Sample: 92
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Jeb Dunnuck
I was able to taste two reds from this estate. The second wine, the 2019 La Reserve De Malartic is a medium-bodied, elegant, silky wine that's already hard to resist. Plenty of black raspberry and cassis fruits, a touch of gravelly earth and tobacco, medium-bodied richness, and moderate length all make for a charming 2019 that's ideal for drinking while you wait on the grand vin.
Barrel Sample: 88-91 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 La Réserve de Malartic is a blend of 82.6% Merlot, 12.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5.1% Petit Verdot, harvested from the 17th of September to the 11th of October. The wine is aging in French oak barrels, 25% new, for approximately 15 months. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it opens with invigorating notes of black raspberries, kirsch and wild blueberries with hints of hoisin sauce, potpourri and garrigue. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-coating juicy black and blue fruits with a pleasant chewiness to the texture and just enough freshness, finishing savory.
Barrel Sample: 88-90
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.