2016 Belair-Monange

Aromas of cedar, flowers, sandalwood, dried strawberries and chalk. The palate is medium-bodied with chalky, precise tannins that delineate the fruit. Fantastic precision and elegance. Focused, with linear, elegant, chalky tannins that dominate the elegant fruit and prolong it. Truly exceptional. Drink now or hold. 10 Years On retrospective.

Slate and pumice stone, crushed rose petals and juicy black cherry, this is exceptional, just a delicious vintage where the new vineyard configuration of Bélair-Monange was starting to come into its own. Look out for this wine - definitely entering its drinking window but with decades ahead.

This was not tasted during the Connoisseur Week, but is a request from a subscriber, so I am adding in at the same time from opening a bottle that I have at home. It's an exceptional wine, still a little austere at this point, with everything in place to deliver joy over the next two to three decades. The salt twist of the limestone-dominant soils is on full display, alongside crushed raspberries and blackberries, cocoa bean, liqourice root, chamomile flowers and pomegranate, opening to show creamy cappuccino. This was the point that everything was starting to come together for Belair-Monange under the Moueix ownership.