Chateau La Violette, Pomerol 2023

The 2023 La Violette is terrific. Ample and explosive, La Violette dials up an exotic mix of inky dark fruit, licorice, lavender, chocolate and leather. Fermentation and aging in barrel exalts textural nuance. As always, La Violette represents an especially opulent style within Bordeaux.

Plummy red and black fruits, sappy flowers, chocolate, graphite, and violets all emerge from the 2023 La Violette, a smaller-production Pomerol that was vinified and aged entirely in barrel. As with the Le Gay from the same team, this is a more exotic, elegant style, and it's medium-bodied on the palate, with beautifully integrated oak, a round, layered, seamless mouthfeel, and fine tannins. This classy, nuanced, graceful Pomerol needs to be hidden for 4-6 years and will cruise over the following two decades. Drink 2030-2050.

The 2023 La Violette has an ebullient bouquet, as usual, clean and pure black cherry and cassis fruit, a floral component emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with that typical lush mouthfeel, although the acidity imparts freshness. There is a veneer of dark chocolate toward the finish but, overall, it retains a sensuality that I found in barrel, and it should age well in bottle.