Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas and flavors of blackberries, blackcurrants, stones and bark follow through to a full body with firm, chewy tannins that are nicely polished. Lots of fruity undertones. It’s long and flavorful at the finish. Drink after 2024.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Performing nicely, the 2018 Domaine De La Solitude (Pessac-Léognan) has gained more elegance and finesse since I tasted it from barrel, offering a complex, layered style as well as medium to full-bodied richness, silky tannins, integrated acidity, and outstanding length. With lots of cherry and currant fruits along with notes of white truffle, green tobacco, and cedar, it's going to continue drinking nicely for at least 15 years.
Rating: 93+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Domaine de la Solitude 2018 Rouge is deep garnet-purple colored and opens with aromas of cedar, earth, blackberries, cassis and tilled soil. The medium to full-bodied palate is generous and muscular with firm, grainy tannins and a long, earthy finish.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Enthusiast
This wine comes from an estate owned by a religious order and managed by Domaine de Chevalier. Luscious black fruits are sophisticated and full. Embedded in the black fruits, the tannins are just showing their potential as the wine opens out. This will be a fine wine with time. Drink from 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Tight, sleek style, with red currant, loganberry and bitter cherry notes streaming through flecked with savory and red tea hints along the way. Nice flash of iron on the well-focused finish. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2022 through 2034.
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Decanter
Depth and poise on the palate here, and as ever with this wine there is an unfussy easy-to-love sense of fruit-focused grace. Never tries to hard and delivers a great value take on Pessac-Léognan, with just enough damson and slate to be polished.
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.