Valandraud St-Emilion 2019

98-100 points/'Cellar Selection,' Wine Enthusiast: "This is a dense and luscious wine, the best yet from this estate. Its great structure and tannins show a style that is powerful but all within. This is a magnificent vintage from this Premier Grand Cru Classé estate, and fully deserves to be aged for many years."

99 points Jeb Dunnuck: "The local bad boy of Bordeaux, Jean-Luc Thunevin, continues to fashion truly brilliant wines, and his 2019 is no exception. Based largely on Merlot with small amount of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 Château Valandraud is a deep purple-hued beauty offering up a kaleidoscope-like bouquet of black and blue fruits, scorched earth, chocolate, gravelly earth, spicy oak, and sappy flowers. Deep, rich, full-bodied, and wonderfully concentrated, it has insane purity of fruit, brilliant tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and just has everything in the right places. It's up with the top wines of the vintage and a tour de force that readers should snatch up. It shows a very different style than the sexier 2018, but it's every bit as good. It needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will evolve for 2-3 decades. Drink: 2026-2057. (4/11/22)"

98 points James Suckling: "Vivid and focused with brightness and clarity of fruit. Dried flowers, too. Full-bodied with layers of fine, soft tannins that spread across the palate and show class and refinement. It goes on for minutes. A beautiful bottle. Try after 2027, but so attractive already. (2/20/22)"

96-98 points Chris Kissack (Winedoctor): "As is the norm here this has a violet-black hue in the glass, presenting the rich pigment that characterises the vintage, with great concentration, although it is not opaque. The nose leads with oaky barrel spice, cigar box, tobacco and toast, behind which the fruit is hiding, presenting only little notes of dried hedgerow fruits and rose petal. A surprisingly taut start on the palate, with delicious frame and ripe tannic structure, supporting a core of dark and dried fruits, currant and desiccated black plum, with very finely knit tannins, and all the tension, acid lift and energy you could wish for. Lots of impact here, but in a very focused style, with a very cool limestone drive to it. The finish is long and charged with mineral energy. Very impressive, with great potential. (Jun 2020)"

97+ points Antonio Galloni (Vinous): "The 2019 Valandraud is sensational. Stunning in its delineation and with sheer energy, the 2019 dazzles right out of the gate. Dark red/purplish berry fruit, mocha, new leather, licorice and lavender all come alive in the glass. In 2019, Valandraud is a towering, statuesque wine that captures all the best the vintage had to offer. I tasted the 2019 three times and it was magnificent on all three occasions. It is a tremendous effort from Jean-Luc Thunevin and his Murielle Andraud. What a wine! Drink: 2029-2049. (Feb 2022)"

97 points Georgina Hindle (Decanter): "Highly charged and high toned on the nose, smells abundant and seriously expressive. Lovely intensity here, tannins are mouth coating and super persistent but this has excellent depth with such concentrated fruit flavours that are balanced so well with acidity and the soft wood spicing around the edges. A bold wine for sure, with tons of flavour and personality, and excellent freshness throughout with minerality and wet stone nuances. One to age, but delivering excellent clarity and confidence. A top buy. Drinking Window: 2025-2047. (Jan 2022)"

97 points Neal Martin (Vinous): "The 2019 Valandraud remains deep in color and yes, the bouquet marches out of the glass with its upfront, precocious aromas of black cherry and boysenberry fruit, plus touches of pressed violet crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied, complex and harmonious, with fine, very supple tannins, a keen line of acidity and a slightly creamy-textured finish. As I mentioned in my previous note, it belongs within the top tier of Right Bank wines in this vintage. Drink: 2025-2050. (Feb 2022)"

97 points Jane Anson: "(Cabernet Franc, Merlot). This is gorgeous. There is high alcohol here and you do feel a slight trace of heat, but it is met by fruit that rises to fill in every step through the palate, along with cocoa beans, chocolate shavings, plum, boysenberry, loganberry, all textured, welcoming, juicy fruits of autumn, alongside cigar box, cold ash, shot through with smoke and bitter chocolate. So good. Drink: 2026-2040. (10/22/21)"

97 points La Revue du Vin de France: "In red, if the sweetness of the 2019 still leaves a little coconut depth in the mouth, the concentration of the wine is held by an active freshness, extracted from the limestone heart of Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse, source of low pH. (2023)"

96 points William Kelley (Wine Advocate): "Rich and dramatic, the 2019 Valandraud bursts with aromas of berry fruit, plums and licorice, framed by a lavish but far from exaggerated application of creamy new oak. Full-bodied, fleshy and sensual, it's broad and enveloping, its lavish core of fruit framed by ripe, polished tannins and succulent balancing acids. Seamless and integrated despite its ripe, hedonistic style, this has turned out beautifully and has the balance to perform well for at least two decades, even if there's no youthful asperity to preclude near-term enjoyment. Drink: 2021-2041. (Apr 2022)"