2024 Valandraud

Auslieferung bis zum Herbst 2027!
Delivery until Fall 2027!

There are very few wines in this vintage where you see these grilled, smoky aromatics that are backed up by fruit, but Valandraud delivers, and here you feel that owner Jean-Luc Thunevin stepped in and said, keep going, I want a Valandraud that I recognise. There is still acidity, but it is shaped into austerity and sapidity, with slate tannins, good quality plum and damson fruits. Estate signature, with ageing ability. Harvest 26 September to 7 October, 3.5pH. 100% new oak. Jean-Philippe Fort and Alexandre Béra from Rolland Consultants. Less leaning in to the vintage than railing against it, and there is clear oak here - but it works.
94/100 Jane Anson

(Saint-Émilion; 85% Merlot; 6% Cabernet Franc; 9% Cabernet Sauvignon; 13.5% alcohol; tasted twice, first at the UGC press tasting at the Cité du Vin with very consistent notes). Very true to its style even in this challenging vintage, but still a wine that will be easy to pick in a vertical in future years for its somewhat elevated acidity. There’s nothing wrong with that and it brings a pleasing sense of crunchiness to the fruit and a tense and charged vibrancy to the mid-palate. But it does cut the richness of this revealing that comparative lack of density vis-à-vis other recent vintages. Fresh, crunchy and with a radiant confit violet note this is certainly one of the vintage’s successes.
92-94/100 Colin Hay; The Drinks Business

Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a little coaxing before it bursts with bold notes of black raspberries, wild blueberries, and cedar, followed by hints of sassafras, dusty soil, rose oil, and pipe tobacco. The medium-bodied palate is taut with black and red berry layers, framed by firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and perfumed.
95-97/100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown; The Wine Independent