| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Left Bank > Pauillac |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
A well situated vineyard in Pauillac that can be relied upon to produce a consistent wine of classic Medoc style and breed. Quality has been extremely good in recent vintages whilst prices remain reasonable. The Chateau is now producing a second wine - Lions de Batailley - which will further increase the quality of the grand vin and reduce the quantity by around 30-40%.
Shows beautiful, ripe cabernet aromas with currants, plums, meat and smoke. Flowers, too. Full body, deep and ripe fruit and exquisite, ripe tannins. Flavorful finish. Tight right now, but shows excellent potential. Best ever. Try after 2024.
The 2016 Batailley just screams "Pauillac" on the nose - it could not come from anywhere else. Lovely tobacco and pencil box notes infuse the black fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with smooth tannin and a fine bead of acidity. Harmonious and less rustic than the Batailley of yesteryear, while maintaining its classic DNA. This is a superb wine from the Castèja family and should give many years of pleasure after several years in the cellar. Drink 2022-2050
85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Deep ruby-purple in colour. You can sense the high proportion of Cabernet immediately on the nose, cool with blackcurrant fruit, there are subtle and sophisticated layers of cedar and toasted spices. Pure and focused, it remains youthful on the nose. This follows on the palate, which has great drive. Black fruit lines the palate in tandem with ripe tannins that offer a velveteen bite. The proportions here are superb; tannin, fruit, acid and alcohol all lie in harmony, with flecks of wood spice adding a generous touch of glossy sweetness. Not as showy as some other recent Batailleys, this is proper Pauillac that harnesses the vintage superbly. If approaching now it should be decanted, but you can already enjoy it with food. It will only improve over the next decade in bottle, and will then have a long drinking window.
The 2016 Batailley is deep garnet colored. It rolls up with gregarious blackcurrant jelly, plum preserves, and cedar chest scents, plus touches of violets, dark chocolate, and graphite. The light to medium-bodied palate is bright, breezy, and refreshing, delivery crunchy, youthful fruit and a firm grainy frame, finishing on a lingering mineral note.
A tunnel of tannins takes you right through the palate, but it is not fully walled in as with 2010, rather the tannins are pliable and the overall feeling is of well controlled fruit that deepens as you go along. The blend is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, and a pH of 3.6. Wonderfully deep fruit flavours of blackberry and crushed cassis reside against black chocolate and well contained tannins. A lovely vintage that has power but is just the right side of big extraction. Good persistency with a coffee-scented finish. This is a buy, for sure.
Tasted blind. Sweet and toasty nose. Charming but perhaps not the earthiest/funkiest. Very much a well-groomed wine. Some vitality but not a lot of concentration.
Drink 2025 – 2040
A well situated vineyard in Pauillac that can be relied upon to produce a consistent wine of classic Medoc style and breed. Quality has been extremely good in recent vintages whilst prices remain reasonable. The Chateau is now producing a second wine - Lions de Batailley - which will further increase the quality of the grand vin and reduce the quantity by around 30-40%. Picked between the 3rd and 10th October, the blend this year is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Juicy and plump with black cherry and plum, the palate is silky in tannin texture, which frames great black fruit purity and meaty, smoky toast from the oak. Very approachable and well-balanced between fruit and acidity, there is a long finish that indicates this will have a long drinking window.
Slightly difficult to read, with a tight, closed style on the palate, the 2016 Château Batailley offers enjoyable dark fruits, leafy tobacco, new leather, and charred oak aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied, nicely balanced, and fresh, it needs to be forgotten for 3-4 years, at which point I suspect it will come closer to matching the barrel review and drink nicely for 10-15 years or more. 2022 - 2037.
Brooding richness both nose and palate have concentrated black fruits. Rich fruit in the middlethe tannins are firm but ripe the back palate has depth and sweetness but there is enough acidity to balance the finish is quite restrained. 2026-43
The 2016 Batailley is a blend of 12% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot, 85% Cabernet Sauvignon cropped at 50h hectoliters per hectare. Matured in 60% new oak. It has an intense graphite infused bouquet with fine delineation, some freshly picked Pauillac mint coming through with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannin that grip the mouth insistently; with graphite and tobacco-infused black fruit dominating, this a classically styled Batailley in the vein of previous vintages with the elegance coming through towards the finish. This is one of those wines that grows on you, perhaps not as easy or as charming to taste as other Pauillac 2016s at this stage, but knowing this property well, I know how it can blossom when it matters, which is when you and I drink it. Drink 2022 - 2050.
I thought the 2015 defined the new Batailley, but this is fantastic. Full-bodied and so tannic and powerful. Flavors of chocolate, coffee and spices. Excellent finish. Very muscular. Tight and precise.
Lifted, sweet and very Pauillac on the nose. Thick and sweet on the palate though – rather different from the nose. Pretty sharp on the palate with some overtones of the right bank even though the nose is pure Pauillac. Quite a dramatic play, this wine! Drama in spades. Drink 2025-2043.
