Producer note: Jean-Pierre Cournut enthusiastically noted that 2018 is "the best vintage that I have ever made in red and it's a very good one in white. Volumes were slightly lower than they were in 2017 but still very good so no complaints there. Potential alcohols were good in both colors but somewhat higher for the whites at between 13.3 and 13.8%. As to the style of the reds, they have so much baby fat that they should drink well young but because there is so much underlying material, they should have no trouble aging as well." Cournut is one of the relatively few vignerons that does an equally good job with his reds as he does with his whites and in shows as I was again reasonably impressed with the quality of the reds and in particular with the Clos du Château. Moreover, I agree with Cournut that his reds should be approachable young but age well too. (Frederick Wildman, www.frederickwildman.com, NY, Jeanne-Marie de Champs, www.ds-collection.com, NY, Wine House, www.winesf.com, CA, both USA; Enotria Winecellars Ltd, www.enotria.co.uk, UK; The Fine Wine Experience, www.finewineexperience.com, Hong Kong, China).
Tasting note: This is mildly reduced though it appears reasonably clear that the underlying fruit is quite ripe. There is both more volume and a finer mouthfeel to the sleekly muscular broad-shouldered flavors that possess a lovely sense of underlying tension, all wrapped in a firm, very complex and impeccably balanced finale. This dusty and quite serious effort should age gracefully for a decade or more.
