Chateau Belair Monange Saint Emilion 2014 (750ml)

This was the first official vintage where the grand vin was joined by second label Annonce de Bélair-Monange, and they had also had three years of sourcing grapes from across both estates at this point. This is seriously good, with rich liquorice and fresh mint notes, well balanced but with punch, showing crushed raspberry fruits and a saline finish that I get in pretty much every recent vintage of Bélair-Monange. Its great persistency, richness and texture are testament to the success of their strategy here.

The 2014 Bélair-Monange has an open, aniseed-tinged bouquet with plenty of ripe red berry fruit. There is something playful and joyful about these aromatics that demand to be noticed. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp acidity, firm tannin, quite grippy in the mouth but there are some lovely liquorice and spice notes that come through on the finish. Excellent. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

A huge, dramatic wine for the year, the 2014 Bélair-Monange possesses tremendous depth and overall intensity. Succulent black cherry, leather, spice and menthol are some of the many notes that flesh out in this dramatic, massively endowed Saint-Émilion. The fruit feels very ripe, yet there is plenty of underlying structure and acidity to balance things out. Since 2012, Bélair-Monange has been made from three parcels on gravel, clay and limestone. It is that very intersection that yields one of the most distinctive wines in Saint-Émilion. The 2014 is also the first vintage that includes fruit from the replanting done on the plateau. Bélair-Monange increasingly gives the two established flagships in the Moueix family's range (Trotanoy and La Fléur-Petrus) a run for their money.