2025 de Sales

A Merlot-heavy blend of 68% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, the 2025 Château De Sales is a solid, charming, forward Pomerol with ripe red plums, darker berries, gravelly earth, and spice on the nose. Medium-bodied on the palate, it's balanced and charming, with soft tannins. They've done well in this water-stressed vintage, and this château continues to produce delicious, well-made wines. It checks in at 13.5% alcohol.

The 2025 de Sales is the best wine I have tasted here in many, many years. Rich and ample in this vintage, the 2025 is a pretty big wine for this site. Dark red/purplish fruit, grilled herbs, sage, rose petal and menthol are some of the many notes that build in the glass. De Sales is the largest estate in Pomerol. The trick here is focusing on the best parcels for the Grand Vin. The new team, headed by General Manager Marie-Laure Latorre (formerly at Jean Faure) and consulting winemaker Thomas Duclos, turned out a beautiful wine in their first year of collaboration. I have visited De Sales many times over the last several years, but this is the first time I feel the Grand Vin is at a level that merits inclusion in this report. Tasted two times.

Marie-Laure Latorre (whose distinguished career at Château Jean Faure readers will remember) took the reins at this property shortly before the beginning of the vintage, so there are certainly exciting things in store at this address. In the meantime, the 2025 De Sales is a creditable effort, offering up aromas of dark berries, plums and vine smoke, followed by a medium- to full-bodied, dense and rather structured palate framed by powdery tannins. It's a blend of 68% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 13% Cabernet Sauvignon—an emphasis on Cabernet rare for this sector of Pomerol.