Winemaker Notes
Rare and unique wines of Château Croix de Labrie are rich, dense, very fruity, with perfect ripeness. A very elegant very deep color, with lots of finesse. Croix de Labrie wine brings a lot of power, balance and freshness.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A rich, powerful red with so much fruit and intensity. It’s full-bodied with masses of fruit with vanilla and coffee character and a long, warm finish. Layered and intense. Really needs time in the bottle to come together. Better after 2025.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship 2018 Château Croix De Labrie checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, all brought up in new oak. It's a gorgeous wine as well as the finest I've tasted from the Château. Lots of darker currant fruits, tobacco, chocolate, sweet earth, and cedar pencil give way to a medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, seamless Saint-Emilion. It has some classic minerality, but it's the quality of tannins as well as the purity of fruit that sets this above the other vintages from winemaker Axelle Courdurié. This will benefit from just short-term cellaring and will keep for 20-25 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Croix de Labrie is a blend is 90% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc, aged in 100% new oak barrels for approximately 18 months. The wine has 14% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs a fair bit of swirling and coaxing to unlock notions of Black Forest cake, preserved plums and blackberry pie with suggestions of star anise, tilled soil, Indian spices and tobacco leaf. The medium to full-bodied palate has a sturdy structure of firm, grainy tannins and plenty of freshness supporting the muscular black fruits, finishing on a lingering fragrant earth note. Here's a beautifully expressed piece of Saint-Émilion turf on a clear upward trajectory!
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Enthusiast
This wine from Pierre and Axelle Courdurié's small Saint-Émilion estate is a powerful reminder of the richness of the vintage. Its solid tannins and concentrated black fruits are impressive, dark with a structure that needs to age. The wine will take its time, so don't drink before 2025.
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.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.