| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Blue fruits, minerals, lavender and licorice aromas are wonderful. Full body and ultra-refined tannins with an integration and refinement that make the wines seamless and beautiful. The powerful tannins hide from you at first, but what structure in the end. It goes on for minutes. Try in 2024.
The 2015 Belair-Monange has a strange bouquet at first, quite feral and animal, scents of smoked cigars and antique furniture permeating the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin, fresh and vibrant, well-knitted oak with good tension if a little conservative finish. It just needs to soften a little, lose some of its rigidity. I suspect this is not the best showing for what I maintain is a great Saint-Émilion. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.
The 2015 Belair-Monange is medium to deep garnet colored. The nose is very closed to start, needing considerable swirling to release scents of fruitcake, baked blackberries, and blueberry compote, plus suggestions of Chinese five spice, chargrill, licorice, and cigar box. Full-bodied, concentrated, and oh so seductive, the rich, spicy black fruits are beautifully framed by firm, velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with incredible length and loads of spicy sparks.
Tasted blind. Very dark glowing crimson. Bloody meat and liquorice on the nose and then rather aggressive acidity. Very introvert. A rather green note.
Drink 2025-2040
Chateau Belair is now owned by the Moueix family, and has had a new name since the 2008 vintage. This is one of the best vineyards in Saint Emilion, perched at the top of the slope right next to Ausone. Despite the brilliant terroir, the wine-making here had been mediocre for many years until the Moueix purchase. It is clear that Edouard Moueix is going to transform this Chateau into one of the stars of Saint Emilion. The vineyard is planted with 88% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and the yield is miniscule as many of these vines are 100 years old and there are many gaps to be filled. Of the 23.5 hectares only 14 are currently in production. 2800 cases will be produced in 2015. Deep ruby colour. A hedonistic blueberry, plum, and black cherry fruit nose. The palate has good balance between structured, firm tannin and intense, ripe black fruits and juicy red cherries. Creamy fruit is tempered by notes of dried flowers and balancing acidity on the long and pure finish.
The 2015 Château Bélair-Monange is primarily Merlot blended with roughly 10% Cabernet Franc. This straight up awesome Saint-Emilion boasts a deep ruby/purple color, huge aromatics of blackcurrants, scorched earth, and tobacco, full-bodied richness, and a gorgeous opulence married with purity of fruit that hard to believe. Picking up more and more minerality with time in the glass, give this blockbuster 4-5 years of cellaring and enjoy over the following two to three decades. It’s flat-out great. 2022 - 2052
Depth on the nose the fruit is ripe the palate fleshy and supple with a rich mix of black fruits. There is mid freshness bright red fruits the tannins are fine and although light on the back palate there is depth and sweetness on the finish. 2023-35
Rich, tannic and dominated by oak at this stage, but this ambitious wine will settle into itself
over the next year or two. Firm and dense, with layered tannins, inky, slightly fruitcakey
notes, this finishes with a frisson of limestone freshness. Drink: 2022-35
As every year passes Bélair-Monange gathers more intensity and gravitas and in 2015 it is showing some of the grandeur
which this property long promised. The nose is full, complex and sophisticated with both red and black hues and
succulent oak. The palate is sturdy and muscular and the finish is dry and structured. Youthful and closed this wine will
blossom ahead of both Trotanoy and Hosanna and around the same time as Château La Fleur-Pétrus and show the grand
terroir here off to a tee.
The 2015 Belair Monange is definitely one of the most impressive wines from Saint-Émilion this vintage. It has a very intense yet stylish bouquet with copious red berry fruit laced with tobacco and black truffle, almost Pomerol-like in style. The palate is medium-bodied with layers of plush red fruit, graphite, white pepper and a discrete smear of dark chocolate. It fans out beautifully on the finish, a very seductive temptress of a wine that is going to give a lot of pleasure over many years. Anticipated maturity: 2022 - 2050.
The 2015 Belair-Monange is a blend of 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc. It has a reticent bouquet at first, but it soon opens up with layers of blackberry, raspberry coulis, orange sorbet and floral aromas. This is beautifully defined and intellectual, a Saint Emilion with aromatic secrets that will only be revealed with bottle age. The palate is medium-bodied with quite sturdy tannin. There is a firm backbone to this Belair-Monange, a serious Saint Emilion, complex and intellectual with precise red and black fruit, a touch of spice and a dash of white pepper on the finish. Dare I say, it represents the first Belair-Monange that ranks among JP Moueix's finest wines since the family acquired the property in 2011. Drink: 2025 - 2055
Incredible depth of fruit to this wine with ultra-powerful tannins that remain agile and soft. So much intensity. It’s layered with ripe fruit and caressing mouth feel. Neoclassical in style. Mostly merlot with a touch of cabernet franc.
This perhaps somewhat controversial marriage between the estates of Chateau Belair and Chateau Magdelaine—both Premier Grand Cru Classé Saint-Emilion estates—to form Chateau Bélair Monange hits pay-dirt with this spectacular 2015 release. Composed of 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Belair Monange has the most singular nose of grilled meats, smoked game, iron ore and fallen leaves over a slowly unfurling ripe fruit core of crushed black plums, blackberry preserves and cassis with fragrant touches of star anise and potpourri. Full-bodied, rich and opulent in the mouth, the palate reveals an arresting backbone of exquisitely ripe, very firm tannins and sparks of background acidity lifting and defining the rich, densely packed layers, culminating in an epically long and multifaceted finish. Possessing its own compellingly beautiful signature, this is a remarkably riveting wine that should not be missed. 2022 - 2053
Extremely dark. Very heady, very dramatic. So unlike the Bélair and Magdelaine of old! Small berries (tastes as though) and very concentrated. Thick and ambitious. Quite a play! Halfway between the J-P Moueix restraint and the more alcoholic style that has been modern St-Émilion.
Drink 2037-2042
