Fine Wine > Still > France > 90-92 Pts > $20-50

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The basic Fontenil (95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon) has a deep bluish purple color ... full-bodied, layered, opulent wine, with lots of black raspberry fruit intermixed with some blueberries and crushed rock ... [One] of the best wines from Dany and Michel Rolland ... of Fontenil in Fronsac."

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"…his is an outstanding wine and further evidence of just how strong this estate’s wines have become. Sweet plum and red and black currant fruit, intermixed with notes of resiny pine forest and forest floor as well as a hint of barrique, are followed by a wine with gorgeous depth, an attractive,..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The larger-scaled 2010 Crozes-Hermitage Le Rouvre offers a dense purple color followed by aromas of graphite, fruitcake, black currants and blackberries. This stunning, full-bodied, rich Crozes-Hermitage has a lot in common with the more serious wines from Hermitage...

Despite the name,..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
... the 2009 Les Gravieres is the best wine proprietor Denis Barraud has ever produced. Yields were not terribly low at 38 hectoliters per hectare, but this wine (made with 100% Merlot and finishing at just under 14% alcohol) has a spectacular, even flamboyant nose of pen ink, graphite, blackberry..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"This excellent yet under-exploited terroir has produced its finest Tertre Daugay to date. The dark ruby/purple-colored 2009 offers loads of black raspberry, licorice, and black cherry aromas, medium to full body, silky tannins, a layered mouthfeel, and an expansive finish. It should provide..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The 2010 St. Aubin is gorgeous. Smoke, slate and spices frame an expressive core of yellow stone fruits. This is another textured, open 2010 from Jadot. Seemingly endless layers of fruit stain the palate as the wine opens up in the glass. Rich, textured and creamy, the 2010 can be enjoyed today or..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
Big and rich, powered with sweet fruits, rounded with black plums. The firm tannins are densely packed at the core of this ageworthy wine. With its swathes of ripe fruit and the edge of wood aging, it’s already delicious, but keep for at least six years.

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"... Pronounced nutty piquancy and wet stone in the nose as well as on the palate here mingle with smoky snuffed candle wick and black tea; quince and white peach...this Clos du Papillon grips so authoritatively and combines such a sense of stuffing and stone without becoming heavy or bitter than..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
…exquisitely fragrant, ethereal nose of licorice, kirsch, sandy, loamy soil and spice box. The remarkable perfume and expansive texture are amazing… Grenache at its finest.

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"... loads of roasted Provencal herbs, sweet black cherry, black currants and black raspberries, beautiful purity, full-bodied texture and a long finish."