2023 Château Quintus, St Emilion, Bordeaux

78.3% Merlot, 21.7% Cabernet Franc. 25% of the production. Cask sample.

Purple-violet colour. Dense if a little shy on the nose but more of a floral complexity. Succulent, even opulent, fruit with fine but plentiful tannins. Tension and freshness from start to finish. Mouth-wateringly saline end. Serious pretentions.

Drink 2030 - 2045

Black raspberries, spring flowers, graphite, and hints of celery seed all emerge from the 2023 Château Quintus, a medium-bodied, pure, graceful Saint-Emilion that has a touch if not more than a touch) of green in its aromatics.

The 2023 Quintus is deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with notes of fresh crunchy black plums, wild blueberries, and cedar giving way to suggestions of wild sage, pencil shavings, and Sichuan pepper. The full-bodied palate has lovely tension and fine-grained tannins supporting the bright black fruit flavors, finishing on a minerally note. This is a very pretty Quintus, though slightly lacking in mid-palate, layers, and substance. The blend is 78.3% Merlot and 21.7% Cabernet Franc, with pH 3.61 and 38% new oak.

Drink 2028 - 2042

This year, the 2023 Quintus is a well-performing wine, possessing a dense, complex bouquet of smoke, dark wild berries and licorice intertwined with a delicate, oaky frame. Fleshy and ample, medium to full-bodied, it’s perfectly balanced with a delicate, lively core of fruit and a long, ethereal and chalky finish. The influence of the Grand Pontet limestone plateau lends additional straightness and precision to this wine, a blend of 78.3% Merlot and 21.7% Cabernet Franc.

Drink 2025 - 2045

The 2023 Quintus is a rich, racy Grand Vin. Ample and resonant, the 2023 offers up copious dark-toned fruit, cedar, mint, tobacco, incense and French oak. There's tons of power and breadth but also more freshness than the early vintages, even if the oak is a touch present today.

Drink 2028 - 2048

Brambled fruit, richly textured, with juice that runs through the palate bringing you into the heart of St Emilion. Push and pull in texture between grilled smoky oak and slate-scraping pumice stone tannins, this takes its time to open, well judged and skilfully constructed. 43hl/h yield, 42ha in production since addition of Grand Pontet in 2021. Audrey Bernard joined the technical team in March 2021 direct from Opus One, plus new director Mariette Veyssiere.

Drink 2030 - 2045

The purity of the fruit here is so impressive, with raspberry, lead pencil, cedar and sandalwood. Medium to full body with very fine and intense tannins that run the length of the wine. Mineral. Tensioned. Beautifully integrated and sophisticated at the end. Lightly salty. 78.3% merlot and 21.7% cabernet franc.