2018 Château Grand Village

The 2018 Grand Village is a pivotal vintage, notable for its aromatic intensity. It has turned out nicely in bottle, exhibiting aromas of dark berries, flowers, lead pencil, plums, licorice and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and polished, it’s fleshy and fruity with a lively core of fruit. Long and ethereal, the finish is superb with an elegant bitterness. This wine offers a deeper insight into the estate’s DNA.

The 2018 Grand Village has undergone a small reorganization in terms of its grape varieties (see my tasting note from barrel). It has a refined bouquet that opens over the course of a couple of hours, the Cabernet Franc expressive, lending subtle peppery scents to aromatics that convey a sense of classicism, something old-school, which I do not write pejoratively. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and peppery in style, the crunchy black fruit now laced with a little tobacco. There’s a lovely tang of cracked black pepper on the finish that lingers for 30 seconds. A superb Grand Village that should give up to a decade’s drinking pleasure.