Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Ripe dark plum fruits and baking spices in a cedary frame with background leafy complexity. This leads to a quite plush palate that delivers sinewy tannin with cassis and blackberry flavors to close. Try from 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
This estate, based in the Gironde port village of Lamarque, has produced a richly textured, chocolate and bitter-cocoa-flavored wine. That is only a problem at the moment, because ripe black-currant fruits are developing under the structure to give density, concentration and a serious wine as it ages. Drink from 2021.
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the most successful Cru Bourgeois I was able to taste is the 2015 Château Malescasse which comes from an estate located between Margaux and Saint-Julien. A rough blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, this beauty boasts a deep ruby/purple color as well as loads of ripe dark fruits, chocolate, bay leaf and exotic spices. Medium-bodied, nicely concentrated, with ripe tannin and the upfront, sexy charm of the 2015 vintage, give bottles a couple years in the cellar and enjoy through 2027.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted at the Cru Bourgeois annual tasting, the 2015 Malescasse felt broody and saturnine on the nose, mulch-like aromas percolating through the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, quite austere in style and old-fashioned but it pulls it off well. Don’t approach if you want bags of fruit, but personally I adore the pencil shaving finish and its old school sensibility. Tasted September 2017.
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.
While it claims the same basic landscape as the Medoc—only every so slightly elevated above river level—the Haut Medoc is home to all of the magnificent chateaux of the Left Bank of Bordeaux, creating no lack of beautiful sites to see.
These chateaux, residing over the classed-growth cru in the villages of Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe are within the Haut Medoc appellation. Though within the confines of these villages, any classed-growth chateaux will most certainly claim village or cru status on their wine labels.
Interestingly, some classed-growth cru of the Haut Medoc fall outside of these more famous villages and can certainly be a source of some of the best values in Bordeaux. Deep in color, and concentrated in ripe fruit and tannins, these wines (typically Cabernet Sauvignon-based) often prove the same aging potential of the village classed-growths. Among these, the highest ranked chateaux are Chateau La Lagune and Chateau Cantemerle.