2024 Valandraud

Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a little coaxing before it bursts with bold notes of black raspberries, wild blueberries, and cedar, followed by hints of sassafras, dusty soil, rose oil, and pipe tobacco. The medium-bodied palate is taut with black and red berry layers, framed by firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and perfumed.

There are very few wines in this vintage where you see these grilled, smoky aromatics that are backed up by fruit, but Valandraud delivers, and here you feel that owner Jean-Luc Thunevin stepped in and said, keep going, I want a Valandraud that I recognise. There is still acidity, but it is shaped into austerity and sapidity, with slate tannins, good quality plum and damson fruits. Estate signature, with ageing ability. Harvest 26 September to 7 October, 3.5pH. 100% new oak. Jean-Philippe Fort and Alexandre Béra from Rolland Consultants. Less leaning in to the vintage than railing against it, and there is clear oak here - but it works.

The 2024 Valandraud is quite the powerhouse. Dense and explosive, Valandraud packs a huge punch. Macerations reached up to four weeks, long for the vintage, yielding an especially huge, deep Saint-Émilion. Valandraud is atypically concentrated for the year. Let's see what happens with élevage. There is a feeling of exoticism here that is so alluring. This is an especially heady, opulent wine in 2024. That was clearly the intent, and an approach that worked.