Chateau La Dominique Grand Cru Classe, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2018

This is incredibly well integrated with ripe fruit and super fine tannins that melt into the wine. Precise and beautifully ripe fruit.

The 2018 La Dominique burst from the glass with an exotic mélange of ripe red fruit, blood orange, spice and cedar. La Dominique is a rich wine, but it also has enough energy and verve to balance things out. All the elements fall into place effortlessly. I especially admire the delineation and nuance in the 2018. This is such a gorgeous wine, especially with a bit of aeration.

The 2018 La Dominique was matured in 50% new barrels plus amphorae and eggs – not the concrete type, but made from plastic. Here we have an attractive bouquet of lovely blackberry and raspberry fruit infused with wilted iris petals, just as I found in barrel. Wonderful definition, and unequivocally much more purity compared to recent vintages. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins and well-judged acidity that cuts through the pure black cherry and wild strawberry fruit. Very focused, and perhaps it does not quite fan out on the finish as I would like, but this is far better than some of the vintages I was tasting a decade ago, and it may well warrant a higher score with bottle age.

Deep purple-black in color, the 2018 La Dominique is quite cedary to begin, with truffles and fungi wafts over a core of baked plums, Morello cherries and boysenberries plus tree bark scents. Full, concentrated and packed with black fruit, it has rounded tannins and just enough freshness to lift the finish.