Chateau Le Gay, Pomerol 2018

A tight and dense red with depth of fruit and polished tannins that really impress at this stage. It’s naturally refined and complex with so much dark-berry, chocolate, cedar and hazelnut character. Great wine.

I loved the 2018 Château Le Gay from one of my go-to estates in Pomerol. The 2018 (a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc) has a lusty, sweet bouquet of pure crème de cassis and jammy blackberries intermixed with lots of spice and spring flower notes. Full-bodied, rounded, and flamboyantly textured on the palate, it stays perfectly balanced, has fabulous purity, and a great finish. It needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will keep for 20-25 years or more.

The 2018 Le Gay is unusually reticent today. Lavender, rose petal, mint, blood orange and crushed red berry fruit emerge over time. Deceptive in its mid-weight structure, the 2018 packs serious punch. It is one of more sensual wines of the vintage in Pomerol, but readers will have to be patient, as the 2018 is in no mood to show its cards just yet.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Le Gay opens with fragrant notes of lavender, oolong tea, baked plums and blueberry compote leading to wafts of red roses, spice cake and fallen leaves. Full-bodied, concentrated and decadently fruited, it has a firm backbone of rounded tannins and lovely freshness lifting the perfumed fruit to a long finish.

Like its stablemate La Violette, the 2018 Le Gay is initially reserved on the nose and gradually unfurls to reveal precise blackberry, bilberry, black truffle and light raspberry preserve aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins. This is a relatively conservative Le Gay, but it is very precise and full of tension. Lovely blackberry and graphite notes surface toward the sustained finish. Very fine, but it will require 3–4 years in bottle. [This Pomerol radically changed with aeration, developing a stronger marine, almost briny nose and palate.]