de Sales 2019

The 2019 Château de Sales has an open-knit bouquet with red cherries and crushed strawberry fruit, not quite as complex as its peers. The palate is medium-bodied, somewhat old school in style with dry tannins and a structured finish. Fine backbone here, an impressive retro 2019! One of the best vintages in recent years. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting. Drink 2026-2042.

The 2019 De Sales has a deep garnet-purple color, rolling effortlessly out of the glass with impressively intense baked cherries, plum preserves and fruitcake scents with nuances of potpourri, licorice, chocolate box and fragrant earth. The medium to full-bodied palate is chock-full of ripe, seductive black fruit preserves, framed by rounded tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and perfumed.

This is a really enjoyable, sleek and well put together de Sales, and you can see the work that has been undertaken over the past few years to build up the mid palate and generally improve the focus and fruit delivery. An enjoyable medium term drinker.

A classic, fresher, elegant Pomerol from the vintage, the 2019 Château De Sales has a ruby hue as well as a pretty nose of red, black, and blue fruits intermixed with sappy herbs, flowers, and cedar pencil. Medium-bodied, elegant, very pretty, and lightly textured, I love its purity of fruit as well as its balance, although I'd like to have seen a touch more richness and depth. Drink bottles over the coming 10-12 years.