Chateau La Violette, Pomerol 2017

From the same team as Chateau Le Gay, the ultra-tiny production 2017 Chateau La Violette is all Merlot that's raised in new French oak. This sexy, plush, yet super-elegant Pomerol boasts a deep purple/ruby hue, loads of exotic red, black, and blue fruits, notes of violets and spring flowers, ripe, present tannins, and a great finish. It's a stunning effort that's up with the creme de la creme of the vintage.

This shows substantial fruit and tannin concentration with plenty of dark-berry and dark-chocolate character. Full body, a rounded texture and a delicious finish. A wine that will please in its youth.

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 La Violette is a little reticent to begin, unfurling to give crushed blackberries and blackcurrants notes with touches of forest floor, truffles, cast iron pan and star anise. The palate is exquisitely balanced and intense, with firm, ripe tannins and seamless freshness framing the rock-solid, muscular fruit, finishing very long.

The 2017 La Violette has a very precise bouquet with blackberry and raspberry scents, a touch of iris developing in the glass. This year I certainly find more complexity here than its sibling Le Gay. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, a little savory compared to other recent vintages with a soft, velvety finish that feels pure and caressing. This is a delicious La Violette that is less ostentatious than recent vintages and frankly, all the better for it.

The 2017 La Violette is very hard to taste, as the tannins are massive. And yet behind all of that lies a core of dense fruit. This potent, rich Pomerol needs a few years in bottle. I have to wonder what it would taste like with less extraction. La Violette is clearly a wine of real character, but that doesn't always come through.