2022 - Belair-Monange, Saint-Emilion

Underlines just how exciting this estate has become in recent years. So much flavour, juice and texture, layers of pleasure, campfire, gunsmoke, steel, raspberry, umami texture with contrast between the creamy ripe fruit coupled with pumice and crushed st

This flagship Moueix wine is 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, and it suggests wonderful density and purity combined on the nose, with blackcurrant, juniper, garden mint and tobacco. The palate is fresh and elegantly composed, with a sweet and finely polished core of dried berry fruits, with rose petals, peonies and rosemary, wrapped around a tightly strung frame of confident tannins, which give the wine a serious grip but which never seem to dominate. Beautifully composed, with such energy in the finish, this is surely the best Bélair-Monange yet – presumably those grandiose new cellars on the hilltop above St Emilion have something to do with that? The long finish, elegantly formed yet riven with ripe tannins, suggest it will go the distance as well.

The 2022 Belair-Monange comes across just a little smudged on the nose, black plum and a touch of sloes, hints of blood orange in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins, good backbone and real depth with cracked black pepper towards the finish. Maybe it does not quite deliver the personality of its peers, but there is substance and intent. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.