Chateau Valandraud 2019

Valandraud lies on the edge of the Saint-Emilion plateau towards the Castillon appellation. An unusual location for a 1er Grand Cru Classé B from Saint-Émilion. Jean-Luc Thunevin has made this mini-vineyard famous with its unusual concentration and an extroverted interpretation of Merlot, supported by micro-oxidation in new oak. Valandraud is usually appealing when young, but has the structure for decades of development. The attractive aromas are reminiscent of le Pin, which is a pioneer and role model when it comes to 100% wood use, but then becomes more casual and elegant, while Valandraud is bursting with power. This can sometimes be a little tiring, but 2019 completely won us over.

99 Jeb Dunnuck The local bad boy of Bordeaux, Jean-Luc Thunevin, continues to fashion truly brilliant wines, and his 2019 is no exception. Based largely on Merlot with small amount of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 Château Valandraud is a deep purple-hued beauty offering up a kaleidoscope-like bouquet of black and blue fruits, scorched earth, chocolate, gravelly earth, spicy oak, and sappy flowers. Deep, rich, full-bodied, and wonderfully concentrated, it has insane purity of fruit, brilliant tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and just has everything in the right places. It's up with the top wines of the vintage and a tour de force that readers should snatch up. It shows a very different style than the sexier 2018, but it's every bit as good. It needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will evolve for 2-3 decades. 99/100