2018 Château Haut La Valette Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux Cuvée Caractères

Community Tasting Notes (3) Avg Score: 89.7 points

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  4/5/2024 - Z1nnfull Likes this wine: 87 Points

  No way this is a 90 or above based on CellarTrackers ratings scale, but a decent right bank Merlot effort. Part of a Costco 4 pack we were gifted. Smooth and light on tannins, great with leftovers but not suitable for the star of your dinner party. The lesser 2018s Bordeaux like this are drinking nicely now. The better ones will need more aging.

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  12/8/2023 - CaptBmann Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Aerated and decant with Ullo filter. Dark ruby medium legs no sediment full body cassis oak plum tart cherry dry fairly soft slightly more tannic than smooth

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  12/5/2021 - Glenn Gilbert Likes this wine: 92 Points

  14% alcohol; Misa Imports, Dallas, Texas; the cork is essentially composite in the middle but faced at both ends with approximately 5 mm of solid cork, no noticeable wine penetration; the cork aroma contains a trace of New Zealand manuka honey; the foil is medium weight; medium to long legs, very dark red; the nose is pleasantly fruit forward with notes of manuka and vanilla on a background of dark stone fruit and schwarze Johannisbeeren (cassis); opened, vinturied, and tasted 20 minutes later at about 18 degrees C; medium to full bodied, unexpectedly complex with a long finish of changing character, maybe ending with honeysuckle nectar; tannins are subdued, and the fruit, stone fruit predominately, like plums, is bathed in a background of minerals, oak, and vanilla; cries out for a pairing with red meat, like filet mignon, grilled (medium) rare over charcoal or gas; if you have this wine & vintage, it probably came through Costco's 4-bottle Christmas Bordeaux gift box; it is far and away the best wine of the four -- the other three I rated in the 80s, some in the low 80s

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