Blue fruits, minerals, lavender and licorice aromas are wonderful. Full body and ultra-refined tannins with an integration and refinement that make the wines seamless and beautiful. The powerful tannins hide from you at first, but what structure in the end. It goes on for minutes. Try in 2024.

This perhaps somewhat controversial marriage between the estates of Chateau Belair and Chateau Magdelaine—both Premier Grand Cru Classé Saint-Emilion estates—to form Chateau Bélair Monange hits pay-dirt with this spectacular 2015 release. Composed of 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Belair Monange has the most singular nose of grilled meats, smoked game, iron ore and fallen leaves over a slowly unfurling ripe fruit core of crushed black plums, blackberry preserves and cassis with fragrant touches of star anise and potpourri. Full-bodied, rich and opulent in the mouth, the palate reveals an arresting backbone of exquisitely ripe, very firm tannins and sparks of background acidity lifting and defining the rich, densely packed layers, culminating in an epically long and multifaceted finish. Possessing its own compellingly beautiful signature, this is a remarkably riveting wine that should not be missed.

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2053

Reviewer Name: Lisa Perrotti-Brown

Review Date: 21st February 2018

A huge, intense Saint-Émilion, the Bélair-Monange is just as impressive from bottle as it was from cask. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that the wine is going to need at least a decade to shed some of its considerable baby fat. A rush of super-ripe black cherry, game, smoke and tobacco hits the palate as this dramatic, unrestrained Saint-Émilion shows off its explosive personality. The 2015 speaks with an assertive voice that demands attention – and it got mine, that’s for sure. The blend is 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc.

The vines of Belair-Monange are split between limestone on the plateau and clay limestone on the slopes. This is a stand-out wine, poised and silky but still in the Moueix muscular house style in 2015. Tannins are fully present and fully committed. In the glass, the floral side opens up, and there's impressive salinity on the finish where you can practically lick the limestone. Excellent; one to put away for eight to ten years.

The 2015 Château Bélair-Monange is primarily Merlot blended with roughly 10% Cabernet Franc. This straight up awesome Saint-Emilion boasts a deep ruby/purple color, huge aromatics of blackcurrants, scorched earth, and tobacco, full-bodied richness, and a gorgeous opulence married with purity of fruit that hard to believe. Picking up more and more minerality with time in the glass, give this blockbuster 4-5 years of cellaring and enjoy over the following two to three decades. It’s flat-out great.

A charcoal and tobacco underpinning gives this energy, while the core of steeped plum, blackberry and black currant fruit unwinds slowly. Shows grip but remains very refined in feel overall, with a beautiful chalky thread adding nuance to the finish. This is lovely, but with some sneaky power in reserve.

Extremely dark. Very heady, very dramatic. So unlike the Bélair and Magdelaine of old! Small berries (tastes as though) and very concentrated. Thick and ambitious. Quite a play! Halfway between the J-P Moueix restraint and the more alcoholic style that has been modern St-Émilion.

The 2015 Belair-Monange has a strange bouquet at first, quite feral and animal, scents of smoked cigars and antique furniture permeating the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin, fresh and vibrant, well-knitted oak with good tension if a little conservative finish. It just needs to soften a little, lose some of its rigidity. I suspect this is not the best showing for what I maintain is a great Saint-Émilion. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

Reviewer Name: Neal Martin

Review Date: 9th July 2019