2025 La Dauphine
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Tasting notes
The 2025 La Dauphine has a clean, well-defined bouquet with pure black cherries, blueberry and light cassis scents, the oak neat and tidy. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannins, dark berry fruit, quite linear in style with a much lighter chassis on the finish than I expected. As such, it should drink well after a couple of years in bottle.
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Average Score
Neal Martin
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
Deep ruby/plum-hued, the 2025 Château De La Dauphine comes from a great estate in Fronsac that's well worth seeking out. Based on 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc that will spend 12 months in a mix of oak, foudres, and amphorae, it has remarkable purity in its black raspberry, cassis, graphite, and chocolaty, floral, exotic aromatics. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a pure, graceful, layered mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. It checks in at 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.5, and plays in the focused, pure, precise style of the vintage. It's beautifully done and should be snatched up by savvy readers.
Medium- to full-bodied and cohesive, with contained, evenly distributed dark fruit and fine-grained tannins.
The 2025 La Dauphine is superb. Dark, ample and explosive, the 2025 races across the palate with inky fruit, tobacco, dried herbs, lavender and chocolate. This is a great La Dauphine. The Cabernet Franc is dialed up in this vintage, an approach that works so well. Clean saline notes frame the close. Tasted three times.