2020 Le Dome
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Tasting notes
This is really impressive. It’s instantly ripe and plush yet manages to maintain real elegance too. There’s a silkiness to the texture, with a weight of rich, ripe, plummy fruit. The density of fruit is balanced neatly by the juicy acidity, framed by a grip of velveteen tannins that are gorgeously ripe. Cherry, plum and bramble fruit mingle on the palate, and there’s a solidity to this – a broadness that shows great promise.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
James Lawther MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Nuanced crushed roses and incense on the nose, a little more understated than some. Textured grippy tannins, brambled blackberry and loganberry fruit, laced with cocoa bean, sweet cherry pie, flaky pastry, burnt oak on the finish, great quality, carefully confident. Score switched around with the 2019 from the last time I tasted these two wines - likely to go back and forth between them as they enter different periods of maturity. Neil Whyte winemaker, Jonathan Maltus owner, Thomas Duclos consultant. 80% new oak for ageing, malolactic in new oak.
Tasted blind. Deep purplish crimson. Lifted black fruit. Lightly leafy. Dark, really chewy, compact tannins but nicely fresh. Juicy core in a firmly tannic frame. A big wine with a long future. (JH)
The 2020 Le Dôme is a little tertiary in style, featuring a backward nose with dusky black fruit and a hint of black olive. The palate is medium-bodied with a peppery entry and good depth. Although not quite as precise as its peers, it's balanced with a sapid finish. There is potential here, but I would not go so far as to describe it as coming from Jonathan Maltus's top drawer in recent years. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
About the producer
The man behind highly regarded Saint-Émilion wine Le Dôme is a Nigerian-born Brit who sold his engineering firm in 1992 to move to Cahors and restore a pile of ruins. After meeting a local vineyard owner at a dinner party, he ended up selling his production to Oddbins and was caught by the wine bug.