2021, Château Bellevue-Mondotte, SAINT-ÉMILION Grand Cru

Bordeaux Blend: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Owned by Gerard Perse - of Ch.Pavie. The small, 2-hectare vineyard is 100% Merlot. The vines are on average close to 50 years of age. The tiny vineyard has southern exposures and sits on the top of the limestone plateau.

The 2021 Bellevue Mondotte is sensual, creamy and enveloping. There is a real sense of breath and textural volume here, a reflection of the clay in these soils. Dark red cherry, plum, mocha, spice, new leather and menthol lend resonance to this super-expressive Saint-Émilion from the Perse family. In 2021, Bellevue Mondotte is 100% Merlot, with no Cabernet Franc. Flowering was uneventful and yields were 26 hectoliters per hectare, all two hectares of it. 93-95 Antonio Galloni.

The 2021 Bellevue Mondotte requires encouragement, eventually revealing macerated small black cherries mixed with light iris flower petals. The palate is very structured and typically broad-shouldered, quite firm in the mouth but more pliant toward the finish. 91-93 Neal Martin

Lots of coffee and oak, set against brambled fruit that has juice and character. Highly charged, with character. 90% new oak. Now entirely Merlot after pulling up the old and no longer productive Cabernet vines. 92 Jane Anson.

Perfumed, incredibly floral with ripe black fruits. The aromatics are striking, the florality - like a wildflower garden. The florality continues on the palate, the sweet, rich blackcurrants and black cherries mixing with violets and liquorice - pure old-vine Merlot on limestone. You get the tension and the linearity here as well as the softly chewy tannins that really do fill the mouth - it is taut with precise energy that is coiled up right now like a spring, just showing a few hints of fruit, acidity, spice and aromatic intensity. A dark style, the liquorice on the mid-palate growing in layers and layers, yet all quite precise and tight. This has good potential with a lovely terroir signature. 92 Georgina Hindle, Decanter