2018 Château Belair-Monange

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 96.9 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View burlingtonm's profile
  • Report Issue

  2/29/2024 - burlingtonm Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Suckling Wines of the World: lack of detailed notes but recall really liking this wine. Hugely enjoyable and hedonistic with rich fruit accompanied by good freshness that will only get better with more time in the bottle.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Irish_Wine's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/1/2022 - Irish_Wine wrote: 95 Points

  Deep ruby.
  
  Pronounced on the nose with black plum, blackberry, black currant, cedar, mint, vanilla cinnamon. Lovely rich fruit.
  
  Pronounced, rich and concentrated on the palate. Good acidity. High ripe tannins. Long finish.
  
  *** Tasted as part of a walkaround 2018 Bordeaux tasting. Not full notes ***

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View bsumoba's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/29/2022 - bsumoba wrote:

  Wine: the Gathering Old World, Bordeaux (Château de Chris et Melissa): Probably not a wine to have on Day 1. A bit high on the alcohol and tannins and as a result, ruined the mid palate and finish for me. Wait and hold.

  2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View csimm's profile
  • Report Issue

  7/10/2022 - csimm wrote: 95 Points

  A lot of high scores here, so I of course had to open one of these to see what all the fuss was about. Upon the first pull of the cork, you might as well have just poured this down the drain and called it a night. This was giving nothing at all except an uber linear red berry note and fruit-stifling booze and acid. No mid-palate; no texture; no concentration; barely any flavor. Superficial and pretty ticked off (that wine, that is, not me - though I suppose that could apply to me as well).
  
  After a few hours of air, the hints of what this wine might become in the future start to unfold. The flavors become blacker and darker. Unripe red and black raspberry, cassis, red and black currant, black licorice, spice, dried flowers?, and (unfortunately) that lingering vanilla alcohol flavor that all but kills it for me most of the time when it elbows its way into any wine's profile. Alas, there is promise here, but it'll take some time. Purity of fruit is on-point, as is freshness and persistence. Texture and polish improved some with air, but the reigns remained pretty tight and kept the bit slammed to the back of the jaw most of the time. Opening another one of these inside of 7+ years just seems foolish really. I am fairly confident it'll come around, but this bottle doesn't have me racing to Wine-Searcher to empty the wallet on more.
  
  A 92-95+? point spread here; maybe more, maybe less depending on which path it decides to take. It'll have to dig deep to get into the upper end of my scale (but I'll rate it at the higher 95 mark here in CT just to give it the benefit of the doubt - and I'm hoping Day 2 gives me more confidence in its proper evolutionary path). Hopefully, like many of its peers, this Belair-Monange will make a complete transformation and call me a liar to my face at some point. And yes, I understand I opened this too early, etc, etc, etc, but there is often academic value in seeing where a wine can go at this early stage as well. For now, it is in a crossed-arms 'whatever' teenager locked in his room kind of mode.
  
  I much prefer the 2015 and 2016 versions and where I suspect they are headed. Hopefully this 2018 gets his stuff together and becomes a better mentee to his older brothers.
  
  DAY 2: 1/3 of the bottle remaining; repurposed into a smaller bottle and gassed for the second day. Let's see if it gives up any of the goods. If so, I'll let ya'll know...

  5 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (15)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View jmoon's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/21/2021 - jmoon Likes this wine: 99 Points

  Just so damn good. My favourite of al the 2018 classed growths I’ve tasted so far (excl 1st growth). Fabulously fun and expressive. Rich ripe plush raspberry, chocolate, cocoa, plums and hint of espresso and vanilla. Will be glorious, probably open like this for 6-12 months before we have to wait 5+ years will be fascinating to follow this incredible wine.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

View all 9 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.