Magenta in the glass with long legs that take more than a minute to run down. Very dense and concentrated with nice gripping tannins and a tart acidity that pierces the tongue.
Plum, blueberry, tobacco, cedar & spice on the palate this is a well-structured wine that's balanced, fresh and invigorating.
If drinking now a decant of 60-90 minutes is necessary (perhaps longer), but the reward is there if you have patience to hold another 2-5 years for everything to come together when it will be magnificent.
92+ right now with the decant; 94+ in the future. Excellent Pauillac for the $$$ that punches above its weight class. I think I got this at Costco for around $40 and at that price it's a steal. I will buy more of these to stash away until 2026-2029.
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This was really really good. Lots of intense waves of fruit with high extraction. Still quite a bit of oak to shed (blinded, I thought it was a 19) but rich and polished like a Lynch Bages or Mouton. Good slate minerals, too. Impressive and this will live a very long time.
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Blue fruited and deep, this is par for the course in 2018 and brings it on in all counts, fruit, minerality, and depth. Really lush for the mark, and rather soft and easy to drink with mid term aging promise. Its as if this should have been labeled 2009. Easy to understand and delicious to drink now and or HOLD_
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Nose of blueberry, black berry, cedar, cigar, and hints of allspice, same on the palate, very tasty, lovely mouthfeel, better the second night than the first night, medium big body, 3 years to peak, a bargain at $45, and a long, finish and pleasant aftertaste.
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And how good was the 2018 vintage? Prima, sagenhaft. It blows away everything before it, until you get to 2010 (leave 2009 to your pets).
Deep plum colour; wonderfully tighten lifted nose of dark fruit and earth; and what balance in the mouth, and this after only five years. I don't normally drink wine of this quality so young.
But I have no choice: when it is at its best, I won't be. In fact, I suspect, I won't be anywhere at all.
vide.
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Nose of blueberry, black berry, cedar, cigar, and hints of allspice, same on the palate, very tasty, lovely mouthfeel, better the second night than the first night, medium big body, 3 years to peak, a bargain at $45, and a long, finish and pleasant aftertaste.
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Very nice wine. Blueberry jam, violet, cedar graphite. Nice medium body, well structured, and overall balanced. Blackberry, oak, cedar, and tobacco noted through the finish. Pretty good value here.
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55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot from 70 ha of mostly gravel with sand, clay, and limestone soils and vines of average age 46 yrs planted 10,000/ha (20% of which date back to 1890). Vinified in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks. Malolactic in tank. Aged ~16 months in French oak barrels (33% new). 14.5% Abv. History: Created by the d'Armailhac family in the 18th century. Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) classé en 1855. Purchased by Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) in 1933. Undergone several name changes: Château Mouton d’Armailhacq --> Château d’Armailhac (1934) Château Mouton-Baron Philippe (1956–1973) Mouton Baronne (1974–1978) Château Mouton-Baronne-Philippe (1979-1988) back to Château d'Armailhac (1989) Ownership: the Mouton Rothschild branch of the Rothschild family. Baroness Philippine’s children: Camille Sereys de Rothschild, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild. Estates Director and Head Winemaker: Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy Technical Director: Jean-Paul Polaert (retired in 2022) Lucie Lauilhé (since 2022)
A(ccuray)=2: Deep ruby/purple. Dense concentrated Bordeaux Blend. B(alance)=2: Fledgling components awaiting full integration. C(omplexity)=2: Dark berries, cassis, plum, cedar, licorice. D(epth)=2: Chewy mouthfeel. Full palate and long finish.
Wine Tally Score [2,2,2,2] = 8/10
No doubt will come in full balance with further bottle age.
For story-telling label graphics, see: [https://www.instagram.com/p/Clyvit6S6C6/] [https://www.facebook.com/WineTally/] For video explanation (in 8 languages), see Wine Tally on [https://www.youtube.com]
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Expressive nose of raspberry jam, confectioner’s sugar, fruit pastille, and violets. Several hours in the glass reveals pencil box and cocoa notes. Tannic, chewy, and dense, you can really tell this wine can go somewhere lovely over the next 5-10 years. Lots of blackberry here with a long, chalky finish. Excellent wine that is drinkable now, but will benefit from time.
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Same bottle accessed by Coravin in June, tasted over two days. I needed a benchmark by which to evaluate the same vintage Brane-Cantenac, and this fit the bill.
A loud and robust wine, and the most distinctive of place in this vintage that I have crossed paths with. It held form over both days and made a very strong impression. The only drawback to this, after spending more time with it is heat. The 14.5 abv comes through at times. For this reason, I have downgraded the wine by a point. Otherwise, this remains a top performer in terms of substance and place in this vintage. If it develops even more brawn than it already shows, to better mask the heat, improvement seems possible.
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Coravin pour, left to breathe for a half hour, then enjoyed over an hour.
The most restrained and place-driven, thus the best, 2018 Bordeaux I have tasted to date. Even in this ripe vintage, this delivers off-the-chain expression of varieties in place. This estate often shows Saint-Julien-like terroir, but in this vintage, all Pauillac...all the way. Positively strapping! Tension, range, and inflection-changing substance captivate the senses.
The highly touted same vintage Domaine de Chevalier tasted recently pales in comparison!
Sporting medium plus acid and medium to medium plus tannin, it packs the substance to age over the medium term, through 2038-2040. 94-95.
Hm. My second time with the 2018 and my fourth vintage of this chateau: 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2018.
This clearly is a very good wine, but I think one should wait a couple of years with opening a bottle. As of today this is just good, but one can sense the potential, and given enough time this will surely be "very good". 92-93 pts today, but maybe 95 pts in 10-15 years. Slow oxed for a week and then decanted 4-5 hours before consumption, but I could sense I never saw the full potential.
2018 BDX Blind (Chapel Hill, NC): Decanted 6h before serving. #9 of 15 wines in our blind '18 BDX tasting. 55% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 10% cab franc, 5% PV; 14.5% ABV. Served immediately after one of our ringers, the '09 d'Armailhac. The '09 was one of the wines of the night, so this suffered in comparison, as it is still very primary. My notes read "shares a lot of similarity with #8, particularly on the nose, but more linear and simple. Chewy and a bit underwhelming; this need s a lot of time." Revisiting the leftovers on day 3, this is just beginning to come out of its shell. Inky color, with a pungent gunmetal, mineral and graphite nose, with some boysenberry, cassis, and violets. Massive on the entry, with layers of fruit slowly unfurling on a taut, bright, and slightly tarry finish. A lot of potential here, but this needs a ton of time. Still improving after 48h or air.
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This bottle had been decanted for around 2,5 hours when I tried it and it was really good to start with, but improved quite a lot during the 2-3 hours it took to finalize the bottle. Showed a lot more fruit after 1-2 hour. No tannins to speak of.
Requires a very long decant at this stage. Will surely reach 93-94, with some bottle age. My fourth vintage of this wine, 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2018, and this will probably turn out to be the best vintage.
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It is a good vintage. Felt slightly more lika a grand vin than second wine compared to the Reserve Comtesse. Lead pencil and some smoke, fruit is very cabernet I think - cassis. Nice, but somehow I thought the Reserve Comtesse's understated nature was slightly more alluring
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The darkest vintage of d'Armailhac I have ever seen, from the first swirl and sniff, you know it's a new level for this chateau. On the nose you find smoke, tobacco leaf, blackberries, plums, wet earth and thyme. On the palate, the wine is lush, round and deep with layers of sweet, dark, ripe fruits, soft, round tannins, herbs, pepper, dark chocolate, spice and a blast of black and dark red fruits in the finish. Give this a decade in the cellar and it will really start strutting its stuff. The wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot.
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The baby Rothschilds seem to have done very well this year. I like this better than the 2016. This is intense and packs a serious punch, without any flab. It reeks of Pauillac pencil shavings and has a deeply flavorful, dark black currant palate with ample fruit intensity to power through its tensile, clenched structure. The tannin is also consistent with this being a bolder, more powerful Armailhac than the norm, also quite ample and muscular without being coarse.
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Tasted next to the 2009. Floral and expressive on the nose - dark berry fruit, cherries, exotic spices, graphite, tobacco. On the palate polished and ripe with good acidity. Less depth than 2018 Clerc Milon tasted before but also really fine and elegant. 92-93+
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Richly textured, this is the darkest d'Armailhac I have ever seen and the fruits are equally dark. The blackberries display a floral charm along with a touch of smoke black currant. On the palate, the wine is medium-full bodied, with good concentration of its dark, crème de cassis, a touch of cocoa and tobacco. The tannins are soft add the perfect backdrop to all the round juicy, deep fruits. The wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. The harvest took place from September 12 to September 3. 92-94 Pts
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5/8/2024 - DBenke wrote: 92 Points
Drinking very nice
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1/15/2024 - brennan18 Likes this wine: 92 Points
Magenta in the glass with long legs that take more than a minute to run down. Very dense and concentrated with nice gripping tannins and a tart acidity that pierces the tongue.
Plum, blueberry, tobacco, cedar & spice on the palate this is a well-structured wine that's balanced, fresh and invigorating.
If drinking now a decant of 60-90 minutes is necessary (perhaps longer), but the reward is there if you have patience to hold another 2-5 years for everything to come together when it will be magnificent.
92+ right now with the decant; 94+ in the future. Excellent Pauillac for the $$$ that punches above its weight class. I think I got this at Costco for around $40 and at that price it's a steal. I will buy more of these to stash away until 2026-2029.
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12/11/2023 - Sanlucar wrote: 89 Points
Good fruit but very little aromatics and overall underwhelming.
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11/12/2023 - pren wrote: 91 Points
尝。气味很deep，口中也不错，让我回想起99
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11/11/2023 - jviz wrote: 93 Points
This was really really good. Lots of intense waves of fruit with high extraction. Still quite a bit of oak to shed (blinded, I thought it was a 19) but rich and polished like a Lynch Bages or Mouton. Good slate minerals, too. Impressive and this will live a very long time.
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11/8/2023 - Purple Tooth wrote: 93 Points
Blue fruited and deep, this is par for the course in 2018 and brings it on in all counts, fruit, minerality, and depth. Really lush for the mark, and rather soft and easy to drink with mid term aging promise. Its as if this should have been labeled 2009. Easy to understand and delicious to drink now and or HOLD_
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11/7/2023 - Bigdong wrote: 93 Points
some sweetness
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10/3/2023 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 93 Points
Nose of blueberry, black berry, cedar, cigar, and hints of allspice, same on the palate, very tasty, lovely mouthfeel, better the second night than the first night, medium big body, 3 years to peak, a bargain at $45, and a long, finish and pleasant aftertaste.
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3/19/2023 - vide Likes this wine: 92 Points
And how good was the 2018 vintage? Prima, sagenhaft. It blows away everything before it, until you get to 2010 (leave 2009 to your pets).
Deep plum colour; wonderfully tighten lifted nose of dark fruit and earth; and what balance in the mouth, and this after only five years. I don't normally drink wine of this quality so young.
But I have no choice: when it is at its best, I won't be. In fact, I suspect, I won't be anywhere at all.
vide.
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3/18/2023 - bestdamncab Likes this wine: 93 Points
Nose of blueberry, black berry, cedar, cigar, and hints of allspice, same on the palate, very tasty, lovely mouthfeel, better the second night than the first night, medium big body, 3 years to peak, a bargain at $45, and a long, finish and pleasant aftertaste.
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12/15/2022 - RickSanchez Likes this wine: 92 Points
Very nice wine. Blueberry jam, violet, cedar graphite. Nice medium body, well structured, and overall balanced. Blackberry, oak, cedar, and tobacco noted through the finish. Pretty good value here.
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12/4/2022 - WineTally Likes this wine:
55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot
from 70 ha of mostly gravel with sand, clay, and limestone soils
and vines of average age 46 yrs planted 10,000/ha (20% of which
date back to 1890).
Vinified in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks.
Malolactic in tank.
Aged ~16 months in French oak barrels (33% new).
14.5% Abv.
History: Created by the d'Armailhac family in the 18th century.
Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) classé en 1855.
Purchased by Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988) in 1933.
Undergone several name changes:
Château Mouton d’Armailhacq --> Château d’Armailhac (1934)
Château Mouton-Baron Philippe (1956–1973)
Mouton Baronne (1974–1978)
Château Mouton-Baronne-Philippe (1979-1988)
back to Château d'Armailhac (1989)
Ownership: the Mouton Rothschild branch of the Rothschild family.
Baroness Philippine’s children: Camille Sereys de Rothschild,
Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild.
Estates Director and Head Winemaker: Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy
Technical Director: Jean-Paul Polaert (retired in 2022)
Lucie Lauilhé (since 2022)
A(ccuray)=2: Deep ruby/purple. Dense concentrated Bordeaux Blend.
B(alance)=2: Fledgling components awaiting full integration.
C(omplexity)=2: Dark berries, cassis, plum, cedar, licorice.
D(epth)=2: Chewy mouthfeel. Full palate and long finish.
Wine Tally Score [2,2,2,2] = 8/10
No doubt will come in full balance with further bottle age.
For story-telling label graphics, see:
[https://www.instagram.com/p/Clyvit6S6C6/]
[https://www.facebook.com/WineTally/]
For video explanation (in 8 languages), see
Wine Tally on [https://www.youtube.com]
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10/24/2022 - cshouston Likes this wine: 91 Points
Expressive nose of raspberry jam, confectioner’s sugar, fruit pastille, and violets. Several hours in the glass reveals pencil box and cocoa notes. Tannic, chewy, and dense, you can really tell this wine can go somewhere lovely over the next 5-10 years. Lots of blackberry here with a long, chalky finish. Excellent wine that is drinkable now, but will benefit from time.
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7/8/2022 - Motz wrote: 94 Points
Same bottle accessed by Coravin in June, tasted over two days. I needed a benchmark by which to evaluate the same vintage Brane-Cantenac, and this fit the bill.
A loud and robust wine, and the most distinctive of place in this vintage that I have crossed paths with. It held form over both days and made a very strong impression. The only drawback to this, after spending more time with it is heat. The 14.5 abv comes through at times. For this reason, I have downgraded the wine by a point. Otherwise, this remains a top performer in terms of substance and place in this vintage. If it develops even more brawn than it already shows, to better mask the heat, improvement seems possible.
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6/4/2022 - Motz wrote: 95 Points
Coravin pour, left to breathe for a half hour, then enjoyed over an hour.
The most restrained and place-driven, thus the best, 2018 Bordeaux I have tasted to date. Even in this ripe vintage, this delivers off-the-chain expression of varieties in place. This estate often shows Saint-Julien-like terroir, but in this vintage, all Pauillac...all the way. Positively strapping! Tension, range, and inflection-changing substance captivate the senses.
The highly touted same vintage Domaine de Chevalier tasted recently pales in comparison!
Sporting medium plus acid and medium to medium plus tannin, it packs the substance to age over the medium term, through 2038-2040. 94-95.
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3/20/2022 - ayalao3 wrote: 93 Points
Classic Pauillac, pencil shavings, graphite, blue fruit. Medium finish. Better in 2/3 years.
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11/20/2021 - Sundbyberg wrote: 93 Points
Hm.
My second time with the 2018 and my fourth vintage of this chateau: 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2018.
This clearly is a very good wine, but I think one should wait a couple of years with opening a bottle. As of today this is just good, but one can sense the potential, and given enough time this will surely be "very good".
92-93 pts today, but maybe 95 pts in 10-15 years.
Slow oxed for a week and then decanted 4-5 hours before consumption, but I could sense I never saw the full potential.
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11/15/2021 - Philippe_C wrote: 94 Points
Nez cassis, fumée, fruits noirs... Tannin très serré, cassis, loads of black fruit, well made, good fruit.
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9/5/2021 - GrapeScott wrote: 92 Points
2018 BDX Blind (Chapel Hill, NC): Decanted 6h before serving. #9 of 15 wines in our blind '18 BDX tasting. 55% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot, 10% cab franc, 5% PV; 14.5% ABV. Served immediately after one of our ringers, the '09 d'Armailhac. The '09 was one of the wines of the night, so this suffered in comparison, as it is still very primary. My notes read "shares a lot of similarity with #8, particularly on the nose, but more linear and simple. Chewy and a bit underwhelming; this need s a lot of time." Revisiting the leftovers on day 3, this is just beginning to come out of its shell. Inky color, with a pungent gunmetal, mineral and graphite nose, with some boysenberry, cassis, and violets. Massive on the entry, with layers of fruit slowly unfurling on a taut, bright, and slightly tarry finish. A lot of potential here, but this needs a ton of time. Still improving after 48h or air.
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7/3/2021 - Sundbyberg wrote: 92 Points
This bottle had been decanted for around 2,5 hours when I tried it and it was really good to start with, but improved quite a lot during the 2-3 hours it took to finalize the bottle. Showed a lot more fruit after 1-2 hour.
No tannins to speak of.
Requires a very long decant at this stage. Will surely reach 93-94, with some bottle age.
My fourth vintage of this wine, 2005, 2010, 2016 and 2018, and this will probably turn out to be the best vintage.
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6/21/2021 - Xavier Auerbach wrote: 91 Points
Amsterdam UGCB Tasting (Amstel Boathouse, Amsterdam, NL): Fresh and transparent, lovely floral aromatics and bright red fruit, satiny texture, moderate tannins, true to type, shows restraint, perfectly integrated oak, good length.
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4/22/2021 - Eriklainen wrote:
It is a good vintage. Felt slightly more lika a grand vin than second wine compared to the Reserve Comtesse. Lead pencil and some smoke, fruit is very cabernet I think - cassis. Nice, but somehow I thought the Reserve Comtesse's understated nature was slightly more alluring
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3/9/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
The darkest vintage of d'Armailhac I have ever seen, from the first swirl and sniff, you know it's a new level for this chateau. On the nose you find smoke, tobacco leaf, blackberries, plums, wet earth and thyme. On the palate, the wine is lush, round and deep with layers of sweet, dark, ripe fruits, soft, round tannins, herbs, pepper, dark chocolate, spice and a blast of black and dark red fruits in the finish. Give this a decade in the cellar and it will really start strutting its stuff. The wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot.
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2/27/2021 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 93 Points
The baby Rothschilds seem to have done very well this year. I like this better than the 2016. This is intense and packs a serious punch, without any flab. It reeks of Pauillac pencil shavings and has a deeply flavorful, dark black currant palate with ample fruit intensity to power through its tensile, clenched structure. The tannin is also consistent with this being a bolder, more powerful Armailhac than the norm, also quite ample and muscular without being coarse.
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7/3/2019 - rossi.wine wrote: 93 Points
Tasted next to the 2009. Floral and expressive on the nose - dark berry fruit, cherries, exotic spices, graphite, tobacco. On the palate polished and ripe with good acidity. Less depth than 2018 Clerc Milon tasted before but also really fine and elegant. 92-93+
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4/19/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points
Richly textured, this is the darkest d'Armailhac I have ever seen and the fruits are equally dark. The blackberries display a floral charm along with a touch of smoke black currant. On the palate, the wine is medium-full bodied, with good concentration of its dark, crème de cassis, a touch of cocoa and tobacco. The tannins are soft add the perfect backdrop to all the round juicy, deep fruits. The wine is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. The harvest took place from September 12 to September 3. 92-94 Pts
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