Valandraud 2015

The 2015 Valandraud is blessed with a stunning, brilliantly defined and focused bouquet, quite penetrating in style yet so young and primal. This is all about potential. The palate is supremely well balanced with perfectly assimilated oak, satin-like in texture with wonderful precision and length. About as good as it gets. Class, class, class. Jean-Luc hits the ball out of the park. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

Plenty of toasty oak and extract here. This has immensely concentrated fruits with powerful yet silky tannins. Blackberry and dark-plum aromas dominate the nose with hints of dark chocolate and candied orange. Flavors follow suit amid fluid, muscular tannins that hold long into the finish. Great wine. Try from 2023.

The 2015 Valandraud is medium to deep garnet colored. It prances out with flamboyant notes of plum pudding, blackberry preserves, mocha, and violets, plus suggestions of cracked black pepper and licorice. Big, concentrated, and full-bodied, the fruit is still very youthful and there is a little oak poking through, delivering firm, chewy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing long and opulent.

Tasted blind. Very dark blueish crimson. Fresh and zesty. Real energy and wild flowers here. Thick and sweet. Lifted and really interesting and energetic. Long and intriguing.
Drink 2024-2044

Valandraud is painstakingly hand made in new, mainly Seguin Moreau, oak barrels by the guru of the garagistes Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle. First produced in 1991 (just 1900 bottles) with the help of Ausone's Alain Vauthier, this was the first of the "Garage Wines" of Saint Emilion and is still the benchmark by which all others are judged. Previously seen as an "outsider", Valandraud was awarded Premier Grand Cru Classé status in the 2012 classification of the wines of Saint Emilion. There will be 30,000 bottles of the 2015 made from 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Black, glass-staining colour in the glass and deep and brooding on the nose with licquorice, tar and raisins. The palate is viscous and rich with dark chocolate, fig, damson and charred meats. The tannins are huge and structured, just as intense as the powerful fruit core. The finish is spicy and exotic with resinous fruit and puckering dryness. This is an extreme wine.

A wine that will be a candidate for perfection at maturity, the 2015 Valandraud is a heavenly wine that exhibits a deep, saturated ruby/purple color as well as a sensational bouquet of blackcurrants, cassis, crème caramel, graphite, and chocolate. This full-bodied, expansive, super concentrated 2015 is a hedonistic dream and has exceptional purity, balance, and equilibrium. While it offers pleasure today, it needs short-term cellaring and will keep for 20+ years. 2022 - 2042

Rich and ripe on the nose the palate starts with fleshy sweet black fruits. There is a balancing freshness bright and lighter at the back with layers of flavour complexity the finish has depth the richness of ripe fruit. 2022-35

Jean-Luc Thunevin has made an ambitiously structured Valandraud in 2015: rich, supple
and super ripe with plenty of dark berry concentration, lashings of oak and sturdy tannins.
Time will tell if there’s enough acidity to keep the wine fresh in bottle. Drink: 2022-30

Massively concentrated and incredible plush and layered, this is a phenomenally sexy wine with masses of power and
really great spice and depth. There is exoticism here rarely seen in wine and the coffee and Asian spices embedded in its
chassis are extraordinary. Very well-built and very hedonistic, with some Douro spice creeping in, too, this is a thrilling
wine, albeit of a decadent and pumped-up style.