2019 Château Valandraud

Community Tasting Notes (20) Avg Score: 95.1 points

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  3/26/2024 - Collector1855 wrote: 96 Points

  Canon vs. Duffau-Lagarrosse 2009-2020 tasted blind (Fribourg): Pirate bottle. Dark garnet. Wonderful nose, wow, deep dark fruit, eucalyptus. Lots of ripe dry extract on the palate. Modern, but within the right borders. Will this age though? Let's keep the fingers crossed.

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  3/25/2024 - sirpat00 wrote: 92 Points

  Vertical of Canon vs Beasejour Duffau Lagarrosse (Fribourg): Vertical of Beausejour Duffau Lagarrosse vs Canon vs selected pirates 2005-2020. Main takeaways : i/ Canon trumps Beausejour overall, especially in more recent ones. ii/ Canon tends to be lighter-footed, more delicate while Beausejour is typically more extracted and ripe. iii/ St Emillion clearly struggles with the hotter vintages a few years on with 2005 the low-light, already exhibiting beef juice elements. iv/ best wines were Canon 2015 (95), 2019 and 2020 (94 each). Summary of wines and scores included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Red and dark cherry fruit, black coffee, mineral notes and an element of spice as well as fresh herbs. Unfortunately also minor notes of nail polish here and there, especially with increasing temperature. Still promising overall, but the palate is rustic with coarse tannin and wild acidity, lacking integration. Plenty of substance, but will need time to come around.

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  12/4/2023 - sirpat00 wrote: 94 Points

  Valandrau vertical (1991-2020) (Fribourg): Selected tasting notes from a complete Valandraud vertical (1991-2020) hosted by a collector with an estate representative. Main observation was that both the work the estate did during the transition phase 2000-2012 is clearly bearing fruit in more recent vintages, further helped by warmer growing seasons that are favorable for this cool site in St Emillon. Additional comments included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  This was decanted prior to serving. A fresh, ripe and sweet fruit, fine mineral lead notes and sweet oak. Mouthcoating, rustic and wild palate, but with great substance behind it and I’m hence not too concerned. Appears more an untamed beast that will eventually come around. But could take 10+ years easily.

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  11/24/2023 - csimm wrote:

  Valandraud, St. Emilion: I was able to try two separate bottles side by side at the estate. The first was a fresh PnP and the other had been open in bottle for 16 hours.
  
  16 hours open: Significantly prune-ridden, which was a little concerning in terms of potential aging. What to think there? It wasn't totally blasted, but it was surely more than skirting the prune juice and raisin side of the spectrum.
  
  PnP: The fresh bottle was consumed with coconut and alcohol on the nose. The palate was wood and bitter blackberry seed. Minerality to be had here, but more on the powdery side of the house. Overall, it was angular and pretty mad at just having been bothered.
  
  Score withheld on both. Perhaps somewhere in the middle of these two wines is a sweet spot, but I'm just going to leave my bottles alone for a while and cross my fingers. Try again in 2030?

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  10/11/2023 - wcf1946 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Hard to rate this at this stage. Wait 5+ years. Drank over two days. Day 2 big improvement. A bit closed now, but potential is excellent. Bad QPR @$120 now, but will improve greatly. Mint/licorice nose. Very dark color but no purple fringes. Medium tannins and finish. Ultimate smoothness. Complexity better than depth at this stage. Wine will reward greatly for those who wait. Lack of purple color tells me it will plateau 2025-2030 and stay at that level for several years.

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