Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere 2015
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Suckling
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Jeb
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Uniformity and perfect health are the vintage's key characteristics. This result is a truly sublime expression of Malartic's mosaic of terroirs. Each plot has been able to reveal its full personality. The rich aromatic palate has been enhanced by a soft and tailor-made ageing that reinforced the expression of a very nice complexity.
Blend: 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot, 5% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Deeper wine from the get-go with dark violets, mocha, cassis and blackberries. The palate has suave, smooth and sturdy tannins and terrific length. Very polished and seamless with flavors of fresh black cherries, blackcurrants and blue plums. Best from 2022.
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Decanter
Displaying the more highly-charged, well ripened character that you would expect from a 2015, this is rich and silky, showing incredible texture. It combines plump black fruits with the most gorgeous liquorice and dark chocolate in a coiled, restrained sexiness. It's totally moreish without being over the top, with a lovely lift of acidity - although it was a hot vintage, there were cool nights. A brilliant effort. 5% Cabernet Franc completes the blend.
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Wine Enthusiast
Smoothly textured, this fruity wine offers balanced acidity and a ripe apricot flavor. The zesty, mineral texture will allow it to develop well, promising more great fruit and texture in the future. Wait until 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Malartic-Lagraviere is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 7% Petit Aged 18 months in French oak barrels, 80% of which were new and 20% one-year-old, the 2015 Malartic Lagraviere is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, and 7% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it has notes of crushed black currants, fresh black berries and black raspberries with hints of tar, dried herbs and garrigue. The palate is medium-bodied, energetic and refreshing in the mouth with firm, grainy tannins and an uplifting finish.
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Wine Spectator
A slightly high-pitched style, with a mix of red currant and raspberry fruit laced with rooibos tea and blood orange notes. A good snap of licorice adds weight on the finish, showing a flash of tar. Has sneaky depth and should evolve well in the cellar. Best from 2020 through 2028.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Malartic-Lagravière is also terrific and comes from a 46-hectare vineyard in Léognan. Made from 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it offers a smorgasbord of aromatics including red currants, ripe cherries, cassis, licorice, toasty oak, and spice. With full-bodied richness, building tannin, and a rounded, sumptuous style, as well as a great finish, it’s going to benefit from several years in the cellar and keep for 15-20 years. Tasted three times.
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Since acquiring Château Malartic-Lagravière in 1997, the Bonnie family has continued to work tirelessly, with passion and commitment, to perfect the estate’s wines and carry them to the highest level.
The estate used to belong the family of Comte Hippolyte Maurès de Malartic, was known under the name of Domaine de la Gravière until 1850, when it changed name to take on its current name of Château Malartic-Lagravière. The Bonnies and their team are doing everything to enable this premium terroir to express itself in all its magnificence: intra-plot management of the vineyard, High Environmental Value certification and the whole winemaking process is gravity-fed. They develop complex, balanced, elegant wines, so tailored they can be considered ‘haute-couture’.
Château Malartic-Lagravière is one of the only six classified growths both for its red and white. Its wines are well known all over the world amongst the very best wines in the Pessac-Léognan appellation.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.