CHÂTEAU LE TERTRE RÔTEBOEUF

The 2017 Tertre-Rôteboeuf was picked towards the end of September (François Mitjavile said he was getting too old to remember!) The bouquet is a real doppelgänger for a Burgundy, perhaps something from Morey-Saint-Denis. It is certainly very pure, not as flamboyant as the previous two vintages but intense and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with fine, grainy tannin. I love the salinity of this 2017...you can feel the mouth tingling long after the wine has departed. The acidity is very well judged, the oak seamlessly integrated and barely perceptible, a feat that I do not think any other Saint-Émilion achieves to the same degree as here. There are notes of sea salt and black pepper towards the finish, just a hint of tobacco. Both delicious and cerebral, this is a Tertre-Rôteboeuf that will benefit from four or five years in bottle. Drinking range: 2023 - 2040 Rating: 93-95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)

As on the other wines from the Mitjavile family that are aged in 100% new Radoux Blend barrels, in this vintage the oak and a charry character seem more noticeable than usual, though here it is offset by the pretty red fruit that is waiting in the wings: succulent, sweet dark-red and plum fruit. Juicy and fresh but does need to see the oak recede. The tannins are deep yet many-layered and fine. Rich and long. Drinking range: 2025 - 2040 Rating: 17++ Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2018)

This wine from François Mitjavile always reflects the planting in the vineyard, which is 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. There was absolutely no frost damage here, François Mitjavile's son Louis tells me, and so there is no reason for these figures to be any different this year. The harvest on all the Mitjavile domaines ran from September 20th until the 28th, which Louis says is the earliest vintage for at least twenty years. This note is based on a sample of one pipette drawn straight from a single barrel, so make of it what you will (this will be true of all Tertre Roteboeuf tasting notes by the way, so it is something authors should make clear). There is a lot of depth to the fruit on the nose here, all dark smoky plums, tense tobacco and spice oak, as well as a little matchsticky reduction. It feels so concentrated and focused on the palate, so tense and yet also supple, carrying the flavours of black olives, dried black plums, blackberries even, laced with toast and cigar box oak, but the wine copes with it all so well. It is fresh, slightly reductive, wonderfully direct and poised. This is magnificent, and once again it is one of the top wines of the vintage, a masterclass in concentration and sinew, savoury and yet fresh, with nothing fat or overdone. Rating: 96-98 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)