| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This richly fruity, disarmingly charming 2006 exhibits a deep ruby/purple hue in addition to elegant black currant and blackberry fruit intermixed with licorice and underbrush, a plush texture, sweet tannin, and a layered finish. This is a hedonistic wine to enjoy over the next decade.
The 2006 Château Barde Haut has a soft, raspberry preserve and crushed strawberry-scented bouquet with just a dab of marmalade. The palate is fully matured after ten years with slightly dry tannin on the entry, quite masculine in style and needing more flesh and depth to come through on the finish. I have tasted much better bottles of this in recent years; I recommend drinking bottles sooner rather than later. Tasted March 2016.
Life and some mealiness on this concentrated-looking wine. Some animal notes, not the most focussed on the palate in the event. A hint of greenness. A little bit sloppy in fact. I’d like to have seen a little more ripeness to counterbalance the tannins. Light, slightly metallic nose. Very fleeting in its impact with lots of acidity and no really convincing fruit character or weight.
Bright red-ruby. Redcurrant, black raspberry, dark chocolate, licorice, roasted meat and violet on the nose, complemented by sexy oak. Supple, juicy and quite dry, with lovely definition and distinct soil character to the flavors of dark raspberry, spices, licorice and flowers. A cool and distinctly youthful style, but without quite the flesh or expansiveness for a 90-point rating.
Tasted at Clos l'Eglise. My favourite wine from Hélène Garçin-Leveque and her winemaking husband. A beautiful, well poised nose with great purity: ripe red-berried fruits, a hint of black truffle and hedgerow. The palate is succulent and supple, with racy acidity cutting through. Quite minerally on the finish, that perhaps lacks the length and depth of the 2005, but does not detract from what will be a delicious Saint Emilion. Tasted April 2007.
Medium red-ruby. Captivating aromas of redcurrant, leather, flowers, iron and caramel. Fat and lush, with more definition and mineral lift to the spicy red fruit flavors than the 2007 shows today. In a rather closed phase now, with a restrained sweetness and good firm tannic backbone. Here, too, the tannins arrive late, but this one has a mineral element I don't yet find in the 2007, giving it more finesse than it appeared to possess last spring.
