| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This good value classed growth Pauillac was formerly known as Mouton Baronne Philippe and is made by the same wine-making team as Mouton Rothschild.
The 2016 d’Armailhac, which was bottled in May 2018, has an elegant bouquet that unfolds in the glass, offering blackberries, briar and a touch of cedar and mint. The palate is medium-bodied with dense tannin, grippy in the mouth, and quite voluminous, with perhaps more density on the solid, almost broad-shouldered finish compared to the Clerc-Milon. This fulfills all my expectations from my barrel tasting and is quite simply one of the best d’Armailhac wines ever made. Drink 2022-2040
This is a really driven d’Armailhac showing blackcurrants and fruit tea with hints of bark on the nose and palate. Full-bodied, very firm and structured with a long and powerful finish. Direct and linear. Try after 2023.
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 D'Armailhac opens with gregarious crème de cassis, blackberry pie and mulberries scents with hints of chocolate box, roses and charcoal with a waft of dried sage. Medium-bodied, the palate has a rock-solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and wonderful freshness, finishing long and earthy. 2021 - 2040
Such richness through the palate, with deep crushed blackberry notes alongside soft coffee bean. I get hints of Petit Mouton here. The Mouton stable measure their tannins in weight, not IPT, and this year comes in even higher than 2010, 4.5g compared to 4g. You don't feel it because the grain of the tannins is so fine, but it is clearly going to age well, without any dryness. Incredible balance, with a pH of 3.55 giving freshness to the alcohol, and making these wines really not very difficult to taste. 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, to be aged in 30% new oak.
Tasted blind. First bottle: Spicy purple fruit on the nose. Quite pure and bone dry. With well-managed tannins. Uncompromising but pure in its intent. Second bottle had much more fruit in the middle.
Drink 2023 – 2032
This good value classed growth Pauillac was formerly known as Mouton Baronne Philippe and is made by the same wine-making team as Mouton Rothschild. 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot this year. Quite a deep colour, with a cool, fine nose of black fruit, sage and cloves. The palate shows exotic anise and clove with black cherry and blackcurrant fruit framed by fine-textured tannins that are well-integrated but will provide the structure to age. Really harmonious fruit and spice linger through to an impressively long finish. A very good showing for this Chateau in 2016.
A thrilling bottle of wine that readers should snatch up is the 2016 Château d’Armailhac. This deeply colored, medium to full-bodied, powerful Armailhac gives up a lovely perfume of blackberry and plums fruits, violets, graphite, cedar pencil, and earthy, herbal nuances. Classic, ripe, layered, and just a beautiful Pauillac any way you look at it, it has plenty of upfront sex appeal but is going to keep for 20-25 years as well. Bravo! The 2016 is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. 2019 - 2044.
The black fruits on the nose are sweet the start of the palate has depth of fruit. Lighter and firmer in the middle there is underlying freshness bright at the back with sweet fruit richness on the finish. 2026-42
A wine that always delivers on the value for money front, this is a serious, well made red that doesn’t lack ambition. The oak is a little prominent, but there’s more than enough leafy fruit sweetness and fine-grained tannins to soak it up. 2020-28
The 2016 D'Armailhac is a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot that was picked between 27 September and 14 October. The bouquet is very impressive, typical d'Armaihlac in terms of the opulence and flamboyance with lush black cherry and boysenberry fruit, a subtle floral note developing with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a crisp and tensile entry; there is immense purity here with some lovely blue fruit appearing on the finish. This is a d'Armailhac that is emboldened by unprecedented tannic structure that gives it real backbone and a sense of authority. Quite simply, this is one of the best wines of Château D'Armailhac that I have tasted, somehow not a million miles away from Grand Puy Lacoste in style. Drink 2021 - 2045.
This is really tannic and muscular for d’Armailhac. Perhaps the most powerful ever. Full and chewy yet balanced and polished. Very, very impressive. Greatest ever?
Very dark, blackish purple. Perfumed and rather seductive. Pretty chunky and solid. Tannins more in evidence than in some (though admittedly this is my first Pauillac in a long run of wines). A long-distance runner. Very juicy.
Drink 2027-2045
