Chateau L'Evangile, Pomerol 2012

This dark ruby/plum Pomerol offers up sweet black cherry and blackcurrant fruit, velvety tannin, medium to full body, and a nice lushness and silkiness. A beauty with great fragrance and suppleness, it’s not enormously endowed, as a great vintage would be, but it is certainly an outstanding wine and a brilliant effort from ’Evangile in 2012. Drink it over the next 15 years.

(93% merlot and 7% cabernet franc; 31 h/h; 73% grand vin): Very deep purple-ruby. Intense aromas of cassis, plum, bay leaf, minerals and aromatic herbs. Beautiful silky texture on entry, then wonderfully supple in the middle, with the blueberry and blackcurrant syrup flavors lingering impressively on the back end. Finishes with rising but smooth tannins and a trace of heat, but this is an extremely successful wine. The very old cabernet franc vines (now 46 years old) ripened well while all the young vines went into the second wine, Blason d'Evangile, which is sold to just three clients and therefore is no longer shown at the Primeurs.

The 2012 Château l'Evangile has a little more exoticism on the nose compared to the 2012 La Fleur de Gay that preceded it: dark chocolate and camphor scents, coalescing nicely with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and acidity, sour cherries mixed with white pepper and a gentle grip with hints of leather towards the finish. I feel this has personality and Pomerol DNA, though it flirts with being overly exotic. Tasted blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.

(93% merlot and 7% cabernet franc; 31 h/h; 73% grand vin): Very deep purple-ruby. Intense aromas of cassis, plum, bay leaf, minerals and aromatic herbs. Beautiful silky texture on entry, then wonderfully supple in the middle, with the blueberry and blackcurrant syrup flavors lingering impressively on the back end. Finishes with rising but smooth tannins and a trace of heat, but this is an extremely successful wine. The very old cabernet franc vines (now 46 years old) ripened well while all the young vines went into the second wine, Blason d'Evangile, which is sold to just three clients and therefore is no longer shown at the Primeurs.