2015 Château Tertre Roteboeuf

The 2015 Tertre-Rôteboeuf has an exuberant bouquet with peppermint-infused red fruit aromas. This is bold, assertive and maybe missing the nuance of its peers. The palate is very ripe and lavished with toasty new oak that masks some of the terroir expression, rendering it Napa-like in style. This seems like an anachronistic Saint-Émilion in the context of contemporary winemaking in that appellation. It's a little dry on the finish. Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting.

The 2015 Tertre-Rôteboeuf has a sumptuous, decadent and multi-layered bouquet with billowing black cherries, blueberry, crème de cassis and violet aromas that are hedonistic and irresistible. The palate is full-bodied with a lot of extraction: chocolate-tinged black fruit, sweet and candied with veins of peppermint toward the no-holds barred finish. A powerhouse of a Saint-Émilion, I was initially prudent with my score but the manner in which it coalesces in the glass is convincing. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

The 2015 Le Tertre Rôteboeuf is thrilling, profound stuff and has the sunny, sexy style of the vintage front and center. A dense purple color is followed by an awesome perfume of kirsch, sweet cassis, toasted spice, and graphite. Full-bodied, powerful, and incredibly flamboyant, it still has loads of tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and awesome purity of fruit. It needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will last for 2+ decades.