Labégorce 2019

A brilliant wine with heart and personality. This captures so much Left Bank signature, as is often the case with Labégorce. Slate texture, grippy tannins that tug through the palate, holding tight to the brambled blackberry and cassis fruits laced with hawthorn and raspberry leaf. Great quality. 33% new oak. Harvest September 19 to October 12, technical director Marjolaine de Coninck. Drink 2025-2040.

Gorgeous notes of red, blue, and black fruits as well as sandalwood, tobacco leaf, chocolate, and spicy notes emerge from the 2019 Château Labégorce, one of the richer, more opulent, and straight-up sexy wines in the vintage. A blend of 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, all raised in 40% new oak, it's medium to full-bodied, has beautifully integrated oak, a stacked mid-palate, and one heck of a great finish. Drink this rich, sensationally textured Margaux any time over the coming two decades. It’s unquestionably in the same league as the 2015, 2016, and 2018. Drink 2022-2042.

The 2019 Labégorce has turned out nicely, offering up aromas of smoky berry fruit, cassis, incense and subtle hints of loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and lively, with good depth and ripe, gently chewy tannins, this is a fine effort. Drink 2021-2040.