2010 Château Bel-Air (Domaines Martin)

Community Tasting Notes (14) Avg Score: 89.2 points

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  2/15/2020 - guido23 Likes this wine: 89 Points

  Drinking well. Integrated tannins with medium finish.

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  2/15/2019 - guido23 wrote: 87 Points

  This was our worst experience with this wine yet - not bad, just very mediocre. We have one bottle left so I will see if this experience was anomalous or if this vintage is on the decline.

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  6/30/2018 - forceberry wrote: 92 Points

  Normally a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (3/4) and Merlot (1/4) with a small dose of Cabernet Franc in the mix. Fermented in stainless steel and aged in barriques (approx. 25% new). 13,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Quite deep and dark black cherry color with moderate translucency. Somewhat restrained and rather savory nose with fine-tuned, layered and classically styled aromas of fresh dark berries, some pencil shavings, a little bit of sweet smoky character, a hint of roasted meat and a touch of liquorice. The nose suggests we're quite far from the sweet, oaky and overripe modern Bordeaux wines. The wine is full-bodied, quite tough and pretty tightly-knit on the palate with rather dry and savory flavors of fresh and somewhat tart blackcurrants, sour cherries, some peppery spice, a little bit of spicy woody bitterness, a hint of liquorice root and a touch of gravelly minerality. There are no new oak characteristics to speak of and the wine is impressively structured with high acidity and very firm and grippy tannins. The spicy finish is quite tannic and very savory with lengthy flavors of liquorice root, some fresh and crunchy blackcurrants, a little bit of tart red plums, a hint of toasty bitter wood and a touch of exotic spices.
  
  A very sophisticated and dead-serious left-bank Bordeax with rather tightly-knit structure and powerful fruit that is all about classic, cool and savory fruit. Although the wine shows some obvious ripeness, the wine lacks the typical plump and sweet fruit characteristics of modern Bordeaux, opting for more tougher, muscular and leaner expression instead. Despite its 8 years of age, the wine is still a mere baby and obviously in need for further aging, both structure- and fruit-wise. There's a lot of stuffing to be resolved by cellaring. Easily among the better wines in our blind tasting of 12 Bordeaux wines and ridiculously good value at approx. 16€.

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  5/12/2018 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine: 89 Points

  Still very impressive but it suffered in comparison to the Larose-Trintaudon we tried it with. The plump, ripe fruit is excellent but slightly unsubtle.

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  12/7/2017 - guido23 wrote: 90 Points

  Decanted two hours then consumed half the bottle over the next two hours. Initially not much going on (89 points) but eventually opened up a bit with gentle tannins and lots of meat on the palate (91 points). Stoppered the decanter and consumed the rest 24 hours later. Not much change but a bit more acidic. Nice, simple Bordeaux.

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View all 14 Community Tasting Notes

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