Chateau Duhart-Milon 4eme Cru Classe, Pauillac 2018

Sweet berries and cherries on the nose with sweet tobacco, lead pencil and blackcurrants. It’s full-bodied and very rich with layers of fruit and creamy tannins intertwined. Extremely long and creamy. Great Duhart. Try after 2026.

On slightly cooler soils that its sibling Lafite Rothschild and often a little austere in its early years, in 2018 you will find a more generous Duhard Milon, with velvety tannins and plenty of mid palate generosity, helped by blackberry and damson fruits, and touches of chocolate shavings and spicy cigar box, still with the slate and pencil lead character so typical of the property. Great quality, will age well. 3.84ph, 37.5hl/h yield.

I was slightly disappointed in the 2018 Château Duhart-Milon, and while it's certainly a beautiful wine, it's not in the same league as the 2009, as I thought when tasting it from barrel. Nevertheless, it has impressive notes of red and black currants, new leather, tobacco leaf, and lead pencil shavings to go with a medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, elegant style on the palate. It has some up-front appeal, as the tannins are ripe and polished, yet it's going to improve over the coming 4-6 years or so and should hold nicely for 20 years or more.

The 2018 Duhart-Milon was helped by light rain on August 28 and September 5 that nudged ripening back on track after a period of drought. It has a very well-defined bouquet of blackberry, bilberry, oyster shells and tobacco, focused and intense. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, but there is real backbone and a wonderful saline finish. Lovely build here, and certainly more substantial than the previous vintage. This is a Duhart-Milon back on form.

The 2018 Duhart-Milon is deep garnet-purple in color. It offers up notes of bay leaves, cedar, and pencil lead, over a core of baked blackcurrants, blackberry pie, and redcurrant jelly. Medium-bodied, the palate is a little lean and chewy, with some mineral undertones and a savory finish.