2006 Talbot
Buying options
Tasting notes
Balanced, if severe, even at 16 years old, with plenty of Left Bank slate and grilled earth character. The fruits remain fully in play, majoring on blackberry, bilberry and cassis fruits, with the begining of tertiary tobacco, cigar box, mint leaf. Charming, if resolutely old school Talbot in character, less precision than in more recent years. Christian Hostein cellar master, 50% new oak for ageing.
Critic scores
Average Score
Wine Spectator
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc. Dense core with a touch of brick at the rim. Bright and vital with a stony, smoky nuance and some leafy, Cabernet notes. Long and linear on the palate. Ripe but with a distinctive tannic edge. There’s a little more muscle and power here but the fruit enrobes the tannins. Structured for ageing and that stony, terroir note prominent again. (JL)
The 2006 Talbot offers this Saint-Julien’s trademark cedar and tobacco scents and as I remarked previously, there is a scent of walking around a stately home. The palate is medium-bodied with decent weight, rather austere in style and needing more flesh to come through on the finish. Respectable given the vintage but not the most exciting Talbot that you will ever taste. Tasted at a private lunch in London.
About the producer
Quality has not necessarily always lived up to this property’s Fourth Growth status, however there have been significant improvements in recent years, with a sustainable focus in the vineyard, and new winery and cellar.