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Monbousquet 2018

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot

Always one of the most concentrated and "mondiale" style wines of Saint Emilion. Monbousquet was the first vineyard purchased by Chateau Pavie owner Gerard Perse back in 1993. The 32 hectares are planted with 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2018 yield was 39 hl/ha and the elevage is in 50% new oak.

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Label

Tasting Notes

The 2018 Monbousquet is a blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine has a pH of 3.78 and 14.38% alcohol. Deep garnet-purple colored, it comes bounding out of the glass with energetic notes of baked blackberries, kirsch and Black Forest cake, following by suggestions of Chinese five spice, iodine, unsmoked cigars, eucalyptus and crushed rocks with a waft of lavender. The palate is full-on full-bodied, possessing tons of rich, spicy black fruits and a velvety texture, delivering impressive tension for this level of ripeness, finishing long with a lifted savoriness. Give it 3-4 more years in bottle and drink it over the next 20+ years. Drink 2024-2044.

93
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (End of Mar), March 2021

The 2018 Monbousquet has an attractive bouquet, quite upfront and showy, featuring blackberry, iodine and light rose petal aromas. Leaving it aside for an hour, attractive boysenberry jam scents develop. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannins and sour cherry flavors mixed with dark chocolate and sage. I must say that I find this dry on the finish, and it doesn’t really flesh out with aeration. I will be cautious with my score based on this showing. Drink 2023-2032.

89
Neal Martin, vinous.com, March 2021

Very refined and savory with a lovely core of dark fruit and round tannins. Silky and oozing with finesse and class.

94/95
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, April 2019

Black core, narrow purple rim. Ripe and yet savoury dark fruit. Highly extracted and very dense. Needs a lot of time but I am not sure the fruit will outlive the oak and tannins.
Drink 2024-2028

15.5
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com, April 2019

Glass-staining, black colour in the glass. The nose is one of sweet, dessecated black fruits, jam and barbecue. The palate follows, with heady fruit, warming alcohol and puckering, unrelenting tannins that coat the mouth. This is very modern, with tar and liquorice alongside notes of damsons and kirsch. Powerful and concentrated, but lacking harmony at this stage.

88
Farr Vintners, Farr Tasting, April 2019

The 2018 Monbousquet is a smoking wine that has tons of fruit and charm, yet it’s also balanced, pure, and elegant. Blackcurrants, smoked earth, chocolate, and graphite notes all give way to a concentrated, sexy, seamless wine that has fabulous tannins as well as length. This wine always delivers fruit and texture, but it also possesses beautiful purity and elegance in 2018. It should be snatched up by readers.

92/94
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, May 2019

(60 Merlot, 30 Cabernet Franc, 10 Cabernet Sauvignon) | 50% new oak | 14.38% alc | 39 hl/ha Massive oak and immense tannins make this one of the most palate-stripping wines of the vintage. Ugly and brutish, this is a tannin-bomb and I cannot see how this will remotely end up drinking no matter how patient you are.

14.5+
Matthew Jukes, MatthewJukes.com, April 2019
Read more tasting notes...

The 2018 Monbousquet is inky purple in colour. It has a much more delineated bouquet than its Deuxième Vin: black cherries, blueberry jam, iodine and crème de cassis. The oak here is nicely integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, saturated tannin, notes of black cherries, soy and blackcurrants. There is firm grip on the finish with just a touch of aggressiveness that will hopefully be addressed by the time of bottling.2023 - 2032

89/91
Neal Martin, vinous.com, November 2019

The 2018 Monbousquet is composed of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested September 27 to October 9 with yields of 39 hectoliters per hectare. The wine has a pH of 3.78 and 14.38% alcohol. Deep purple-black in color, it sashays out of the glass with beautiful, flamboyant red roses, chocolate box and molten licorice scents over a core of crème de cassis, plum preserves and Morello cherries plus fragrant wafts of underbrush, lavender and cloves. Full-bodied, rich and wonderfully elegant, the palate delivers layers of black fruits and spices, wrapped in a cashmere shawl of tannins, finishing very long and incredibly perfumed.

93/95
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (April 2019), April 2019
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.