2016 Château d'Armailhac
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Tasting notes
The 2016 d'Armailhac has a delightful nose, black fruit mixed with cedar and touches of brown spice. Fine delineation. The palate is medium-bodied, with firm tannins, grippy, a little tight towards the finish, but there is a sense of energy here. It does not match the bottle 12 months ago, but the potential is here. Tasted blind at the Southwold 10-Year-On tasting.
Critic scores
James Suckling
Wine Spectator
More reviews and scores
Tasted blind. First bottle: Spicy purple fruit on the nose. Quite pure and bone dry. With well-managed tannins. Uncompromising but pure in its intent . Second bottle had much more fruit in the middle. (JR)
A thrilling bottle of wine that readers should snatch up is the 2016 Château d’Armailhac. This deeply colored, medium to full-bodied, powerful Armailhac gives up a lovely perfume of blackberry and plums fruits, violets, graphite, cedar pencil, and earthy, herbal nuances. Classic, ripe, layered, and just a beautiful Pauillac any way you look at it, it has plenty of upfront sex appeal but is going to keep for 20-25 years as well. Bravo! The 2016 is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.
The 2016 d’Armailhac, which was bottled in May 2018, has an elegant bouquet that unfolds in the glass, offering blackberries, briar and a touch of cedar and mint. The palate is medium-bodied with dense tannin, grippy in the mouth, and quite voluminous, with perhaps more density on the solid, almost broad-shouldered finish compared to the Clerc-Milon. This fulfills all my expectations from my barrel tasting and is quite simply one of the best d’Armailhac wines ever made.