Bellevue Mondotte, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2010

This is incredibly intense and powerful with aromas of iron, spice and berry. Full body with a dense centre palate of dark fruits and chocolate. Very long and refined. Balanced. Very closed.

Try in 2018

This miniature 5-acre vineyard, beautifully situated in St.-Emilion, has produced a blend of 90% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Yields were 24 hectoliters per hectare.

The wine is not as powerful as one might expect, given the owners and winemaking team. A sensational, rather massive example for a 2010, this opaque purple wine offers notes of subtle barbecue smoke, blackberry and cassis, hints of lead pencil shavings, and a confiture of red and black fruits in the mouth. Full-bodied, unctuously textured and excruciatingly tannic, this is a big, blockbuster style of wine meant for 10-50 years of cellaring.

Saturated dark ruby. High-toned aromas of black raspberry, blueberry and smoky oak. Superripe, lush, chewy and deep, with a distinctly high-toned quality to the fine-grained flavors of wild dark berries, espresso, graphite and dark chocolate. For all its sweetness, there's no shortage of acidity here. The broad, sweet, building tannins give shape to the fruit of this massive wine, which remained impressively fresh in the recorked bottle.

A blend of 90% Merlot and 5% each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, this has a very intense, backward bouquet that stubbornly refuses to open despite leaving it five minutes in the glass. The palate is very structured, with a touch of graphite interlacing the ripe blackberry and liquorice-tinged fruit possibly from some very ripe Cabernets.) Very dense and powerful towards the finish, this is your quintessential vin de garde that will need long-term cellaring.

Drink 2025 - 2040

90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc; 22 hectoliters per hectare.

Opaque inky-purple. A clean, precise nose offers cassis, violet and cocoa. Juicy and intensely flavoured, with sweet, vibrant dark berry and coffee flavours. Finishes with firm, building tannins and a peppery quality. Although there's no shortage of oak here, this Bellevue-Mondotte seems a lot less over-extracted than some other recent vintages. I've never been much of a fan of this wine, but the 2010 looks like a winner.