2010 Château Bellevue-Mondotte
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Tasting notes
Saturated dark ruby. High-toned aromas of black raspberry, blueberry and smoky oak. Superripe, lush, chewy and deep, with a distinctly high-toned quality to the fine-grained flavors of wild dark berries, espresso, graphite and dark chocolate. For all its sweetness, there's no shortage of acidity here. The broad, sweet, building tannins give shape to the fruit of this massive wine, which remained impressively fresh in the recorked bottle.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The wine is not as powerful as one might expect, given the owners and winemaking team, coming in at 14.3%. A sensational, rather massive example for a 2010, this opaque purple wine offers up notes of subtle barbecue smoke, blackberry and cassis as well as a hints of lead pencil shavings and a confiture of red and black fruits in the mouth. Full-bodied, unctuously textured and excruciatingly tannic, this is a big, blockbuster style of wine meant for 10-50+ years of cellaring. This miniature 5-acre vineyard, beautifully situated in St.-Emilion, has produced a blend of 90% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Yields were 24 hectoliters per hectare.
Very dark purple. Attractive aroma on top of very ripe fruit notes and a definite skein of minerality. Some lift with a bit of currant aroma. Very drying finish. Will this eventually soften into a wonderful partner for food? It seems difficult to believe. Currently SO angular! I thought the Perse wines were calming down a bit but now I’m not so sure. (JR)