Winemaker Notes
Blend: 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Beautifully perfumed wine, profiting from the great Cabernet Franc in 2010, with almost silky tannins. The heady berries are surrounded with violets, giving a wine with great final freshness.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 Points -
Jeb Dunnuck
Clearly more evolved and surprisingly tired compared to the last time I had it, the 2010 Le Dome offers darker currants, orange blossom, and chocolaty nuances, with a kiss of background menthol. This carries to a full-bodied Saint-Emilion with a round, plush mouthfeel, firmer tannins, and juicy acidity. The overall balance here is questionable, and given the seemingly downward trajectory of this wine.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Le Dome is a blend of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot. Deep garnet colored, it opens with notions of kirsch, baked raspberries and mulberries with touches of oolong tea, cigar boxes and dried herbs. Full-bodied, it has firm, chewy tannins and a lively line defining the evolving dried berries and earthy layers, finishing on a stewed tea note. Already mature, drink it over the next 15-18 years.
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Wine Spectator
A burly, extracted style, with lots of roasted apple wood and mesquite flavors leading the way, followed by briary grip and slightly chewy plum, blackberry and black currant fruit flavors. Shows more heft than cut and drive, featuring scads of tobacco, ganache and loam on the finish. If cellaring can tame the chewy edges, this will become an impressive, modern-styled wine down the road. Best from 2016 through 2030.
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.