Rich, deep and powerful, we are very much in the heart of Pomerol here, with black chocolate, cocoa bean, espresso, slate, balanced chalky tannins that set off an edge of graphite and gunsmoke. Harvest 20 September to October 5, fermented with native yeasts and aged in 60%, 47hl/h yield. This was first full vintage for technical director Mathieu Bonté, working alongside owner Jean-Baptiste Bourotte.

Made from 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Clos du Clocher is deep garnet-purple colored. It is a little closed and broody to start, featuring charcoal, smoked meats, and tilled soil hints over a plum preserves and blackberry pie core with wafts of fragrant earth and tree bark. Full-bodied, rich, and densely packed with black fruit and mineral layers, it has firm, ripe, rounded tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with great length and depth. (LPB) 95+

A wine from Jean-Baptiste Bourotte, this is 30% Cabernet Franc and 70% Merlot. The fermentation was slow, enacted purely by indigenous yeasts, the extraction was – in Jean-Baptiste’s words – gentle, and the élevage was in 60% new oak barrels. A perfumed nose here, with dark and focused berry fruits, currants, lightly desiccated blackcurrant, smoke, black olive and soot. The palate is glossy and creamed, with a supple presence of black fruit at the start, laced with savoury toast and salty olive notes, with a rich and ripe wrapping of tannins, and little nuances of vanilla pod. Very pure, polished and focused, with nice drive too, from this under-rated estate. Top work.