James Suckling (99-100)

This shows the purity of Angelus. I have never tasted a wine from here with such incredible clarity. Full body, full fruit and full beauty. Super silky tannins. A joy to taste. Makes you want to drink it. 62% merlot and 38% cabernet franc.

Wine Enthusiast (100)

This is a rich, perfumed wine, with dense tannins and intense layers of black plum and spice. The palate is firmly built yet broadened out by plump dark-fruit tones and honed by a solid, dry core. Drink from 2025.

The Wine Cellar Insider (98-100)

Deeply colored, the wine is all about its elegance in the texture. The fruits offer a level of purity and refinement that was not present in older vintages. Perfectly balanced, vibrant, long and intense, the wine is incredibly sensuous, velvety, and silky. The level of concentration remains, but the sensation here is now one of sensuality, balance, and sophistication. The silky, pure, red and black pit fruits with a cool touch of orange rind remain with you for close to 60 seconds. Fermentation at cooler temperatures and no sulfur during the fermentations helped maintain the wines elegance and purity. The wine blends 60% Merlot, and 40% Cabernet Franc, 14.5% ABV, 3.65 pH. Harvesting took place, September 6 - September 28.

James Suckling (97-98)

The transparency of fruit and the finesse is really something here. There’s depth and beauty to the pristine, fresh fruit. Full-bodied and muscular with wonderful tannins that provide tension and form. Subtle and weightless, this is a thought-provoking young wine. 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc.

James Suckling (97-98)

The transparency of fruit and the finesse is really something here. There’s depth and beauty to the pristine, fresh fruit. Full-bodied and muscular with wonderful tannins that provide tension and form. Subtle and weightless, this is a thought-provoking young wine. 60% merlot and 40% cabernet franc.

Expertly crafted by the esteemed Barons de Rothschild, the Reserve Pauillac Speciale 2019 is a sublime testament to the excellence of Pauillac terroir. Sumptuously blended from the finest Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes, meticulously handpicked from the heart of Bordeaux, the Barons de Rothschild Reserve Pauillac Speciale 2019 showcases the signature depth and complexity associated with Rothschild wines. Extensively matured in French oak barrels, this masterpiece accentuates a profound, velvety palate bursting with decadent notes of dark fruit, truffle, and spices.

Committed to sustainability, Barons de Rothschild meticulously adopts Low Environmental Impact Viticulture, preserving the land for future generations. Embodying over two centuries of winemaking heritage, this extraordinary cuvée continues to uphold the Rothschild family's enduring commitment to quality. The Barons de Rothschild Reserve Pauillac Speciale 2019 is truly a rendezvous of opulence, elegance, and sophistication. Esteemed among aficionados and critics alike, this gem is an absolute must-have in any fine wine collection.

James Suckling (96)

Shows beautiful, ripe cabernet aromas with currants, plums, meat and smoke. Flowers, too. Full body, deep and ripe fruit and exquisite, ripe tannins. Flavorful finish. Tight right now, but shows excellent potential. Best ever. Try after 2024.

Decanter (97)

Vibrant and intense colour in the glass, richly scented, floral and perfumed, open and inviting. Intense and concentrated, the fruit is dark and ripe but there’s no hint of over ripeness here and instead you get cool blue fruits, chalky tannins and minty freshness with accents of liquorice, coffee, tobacco, cedar spice and clove. Tannins are clearly at the fore, giving the structure and the frame while the juicy acidity gives the energy and life. Still on the serious side, not tense so much as there’s good persistence, it’s lean and streamlined, but refined in a spiced and mineral way. Gorgeous terroir markers, lovely detail and precision, you can feel they haven't worked too much or tried too hard. It carries the signature of the estate in the serious structure, it’s a big wine, there’s such power here but so well controlled and delivered. Razor sharp, focussed and persistent. A gorgeous 2022, well executed and will be a clear success.

Vinous - Antonio Galloni (97)

The 2020 Beau-Sejour Becot is a dense, powerful wine. A rush of black cherry, plum, chocolate, new leather, licorice, spice and sweet oak builds as this towering, vertically explosive Saint-Émilion opens in the glass. This is an especially broad, expansive Saint-Émilion, much of that attributable to the clay in these soils. The 2020 is magnificent in its intensity and overall volume. Superb.

Wine Advocate (95+)

An extraordinary effort in this vintage, this 2008 was made from lower yields than the 2010 (the 2008's equaled 20 hectoliters per hectare) and is a blend of 90% Merlot and equal parts Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon that came in at 14% natural alcohol. Michel Rolland has been the consultant for all the Perse estates since their acquisition, and the 2008's fruit was harvested very late, October 20. The result is a backward, dense purple-colored wine revealing a crushed rock-like liqueur along with highly extracted, massive flavors of black currants, sweet cherries, licorice and toast. This full-bodied effort requires 5-6 years of bottle age and should last for 25-30 years.

Decanter (97)

One of the standouts of the vintage that impressed equally on three different occasions. Fragrant and expressive on the nose, lovely scents and dark fruits. Smooth and crisp, silky but concentrated, such precision and detail straight away with succulent and juicy acidity. There’s concentration no doubt, it’s ripe and intense, the dark perfumed blackcurrants and black cherries give a serious backbone and tension to the wine, while the minty, stony freshness carries the flavour and gives the energy and definition. Excellently weighted on the palate, with structure and a mouthwatering sensation that comes in once the weight settles. So well constructed with a beautiful texture and overall integration of all the elements. Exceptional quality and drinkability on offer with a delicious salty, graphite and flint finish that puts you at the estate. Overlook this at your peril. 2.5% Petit Verdot completes the blend. 3.65pH. Harvest 12 - 24 September. 60% grand vin production. A yield of 34hl/ha. Tasted three times. This vintage was the first to be made 100% in the new cellar with double the number of vats than were available in 2020 for more precise fermentations. HVE3 certified. Harvest 12 September - 24 September.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (94-96)

The first sample was from a 2018 barrel which marked the wine a little too much. Mid purple. Riper on the nose and has taken the oak a bit more. Try another one. Much better. A sublime weight of perfectly ripe fruit whereas the other seemed over ripe. Excellent. Drink from 2030-2037.

Vinous (93-95)

The 2022 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru has a very delineated, focused bouquet, well controlled with citrus fruit, lemon verbena, and light orange pith scents. The palate is poised, quite intense and certainly has superb tension. There are Golden Delicious and light marzipan notes on the persistent finish, completing a very promising Corton Charlemagne.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (95-97)

Glowing purple. The bouquet is absolutely regal. What else to say? The palate offers a fantastic complexity varying from the sweetness of perfect ripeness through to a more savoury character from the terroir. The length of flavour transcends anything else. Gracefulness personified. Drink from 2032-2040.

James Suckling (99-100)

This is a wine that soars to new heights with its brightness and weightlessness. The balance of serene fruit that’s perfectly ripe. Full-bodied yet tight and polished where it seems delicate and compressed, with berry, chocolate and walnut character. The finish is endless and poised. Wine of the vintage? 53% merlot, 46% cabernet franc and 1% cabernet sauvignon.

Jeb Dunnuck (96-98+)

I continue to love the wines from this estate, and the 2020 Château Clinet is no exception. Straight-up sensational notes of blueberries, cassis, violets, tobacco, and earth all emerge from the glass, and this beauty is full-bodied, with a rich, concentrated mid-palate, flawless balance, and a great finish. It shows the tighter, fresher, more focused style of the vintage, yet it still brings plenty of mid-palate depth as well as an expansive texture. It has enough oak to warrant short-term bottle age but will have 25-30 years of overall longevity. This is a gorgeous wine.

Jancis Robinson (18.5)

Cask sample. Quite a price! Transparent crimson. Very dense nose with more layers than most of the 2018 red burgundies I have tasted so far. Pretty rich with grand cru density. Very well done. Actually the best Clos des Epeneaux I remember tasting en primeur. Long, rich, opulent but all in a convincing structure. Very long in fact.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (94-97)

A rich deep purple, super saturated, with a bouquet to match. A full and firm structure with Thomas Collardot’s abundant fruit flowing over the top. A darker fruit with a blackberry note, but not the mulberry which would imply over-ripeness. The 20% whole bunch vinification adds an additional freshness, a slight salinity which works very well. Drink from 2032-2040.

The Wine Independent (100)

Deep garnet in color, the 2016 Cos d'Estournel is quite closed to start, requiring a lot of coaxing to bring out profound notions of creme de cassis, wild blueberries, black cherry compote, and rose oil, leading to suggestions of Indian spices, crushed rocks, and dried lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is both opulent and energetic, revealing loads of perfumed black fruit layers and a plush, polished texture, finishing with epic length and depth.

Wine Advocate (98+)

Composed of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 1% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, yields for the grand vin in 2017 were 43 hectoliters per hectare, and it was aged in 60% new oak. It came in at an alcohol of 13% and an IPT of 68. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Cos d'Estournel needs a little coaxing to unfurl, revealing beautiful expressions of preserved plums, boysenberries, blackcurrant pastilles and wild blueberries with hints of Indian spices, menthol, lilacs and mossy tree bark plus a compelling suggestion of iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a solid backbone of firm, grainy tannins and well-knit freshness supporting the tightly wound blue and black fruits layers, finishing long and fragrant. This wine will need a good 5-7 years in bottle before it begins to blossom and should go on for at least another 40 years. I expect this wine to be a blockbuster of a head-turner when I come back and taste it at 10 years of age!

James Suckling (96-97)

A dense, creamy DC white with lots of rich cooked-apple, mineral, cream and praline character. It’s full and very layered with chewy intensity and a long, bitter-lemon and almost honey finish. Pretty phenolic tension, too.

Vinous (94)

The 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet La Boudriotte 1er Cru is very floral on the nose with pressed white flowers, honeysuckle and broom, touches of chalk and apricot. The palate is well balanced with fine acidity, more density than the La Grande Montagne, impressive weight and salinity that gets the saliva flowing on the finish. Excellent.

Vinous (89-91)

The 2022 Bourgogne Rouge Les Bons Batons is the Domaine's largest cuvée from 1.8 hectares of vines. It has a well-defined bouquet with bright red fruit. The medium-bodied palate has vivid red fruit and fine structure with gentle grip on the finish. Village quality here.

Wine Advocate (96)

The 2019 Grand-Puy-Lacoste exhibits notions of minty cassis, plums, loamy soil, burning embers and cigar wrapper, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and velvety palate that’s deep and concentrated, its generous core of lively fruit concealing an elegantly muscular chassis of ripe, powdery tannin. Consisting of fully 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, this is another true classic from the Borie family.

Vinous - Neal Martin (96-98)

The 2022 Grand Puy Lacoste was picked from 7 to 23 September and contains more Merlot due to the high quality of the fruit, matured in 75% new oak. There is 14.2% alcohol. Therefore, this lends this GPL a little more precocity and sensuality compared to other vintages, not cut from the same "classical" cloth as, say, the 2019 or 2020. Underlying this velvety veneer are enticing traits of freshly-rolled tobacco and undergrowth. The palate is medium-bodied with finely-sculpted tannins. Silky smooth in texture, so much so that it belies that backbone underneath. There is a peacock's tail of mineral-rich, quite peppery black fruit on the finish, completing a Pauillac endowed with huge potential.

Burghound (86-89)

A super-fresh nose freely reveals its aromas of ripe red and dark berries trimmed in ample earth nuances. The rich and seductively textured middleweight flavors possess solid size and weight before concluding in a long if moderately rustic finale. This is a quality effort for its level

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (88-91)

Last to be picked, with plenty of rot to sort out. A deeper purple than the Bourgogne. Marvellous density of deep raspberry fruit. Generous and very pure, with some black raspberry fruit, luscious more than precise but a wine it will be easy to fall in love with. Drink from 2024-2027.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (95-98)

5 Star Wine. A rich dark purple. The nose is astonishing because of its definition. It is a slightly darker and certainly less lushly appealing style. Peppery notes are in balance but the volume of fruit surmounts. This is a fine and very noble example which could well leap ahead of the 2020 in the rankings. There is such a wealth of fruit, on the cusp of red and black, which returns in the very long finish. Bravo. Drink from 2030-2040.

Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy (96-98)

5 Star Wine. An astonishing rich imperial purple colour. Possibly it wins in density over and above the Clos de Vougeot. It doesn’t stun me as much as last year because it is no longer my first experience! An all-enveloping dark raspberry, silky as well as lush, dotted with pepper, with an almost endless finish. Grapes beautifully grown and then seamlessly made. Drink from 2030-2040.