Winemaker Notes
Blend: 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Impressive depth of fruit and structure to this 2017 with currant, plum and light chocolate character, medium to full body and round, lightly chewy tannins. Flavorful and long. Dialed-in quality here. Drink after 2022.
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Wine Spectator
Juicy and youthfully compact, with bramble-edged cassis, plum and blackberry flavors, lined with licorice snap and tar details. The grippy back end shows good energy, with latent acidity adding length. A buried bolt of iron adds range. Rock-solid. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Best from 2022 through 2038.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Talbot is medium to deep garnet-purple in color with aromas of cedar, black cherries, mulberries and warm blackcurrants with touches of earth, tree bark and herbs. The palate is medium-bodied, firm, grainy and muscular with an earthy finish.
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Decanter
Delicate red fruits, showing lovely precision and balance, and soft but unmistakable concentration of menthol and crushed earth notes on the finish. No need to wait too long, there are plenty of tannins here but they are not overpowering the fruit even at this early stage. Slight pyrazine notes stop the fruit from fully expanding, but this is an enjoyable wine.
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Wine Enthusiast
A balanced, structured wine, this has berry fruits, rich tannins and a dark core of dryness. Everything is in place for the wine to age well. Drink from 2024.
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.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.