2018 La Fleur d’Arthus
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Tasting notes
The 2018 La Fleur d’Arthus has an attractive, quite intense bouquet of blackberry, briar, raspberry coulis and light tobacco scents, touches of blood orange/marmalade emerging with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins. This is well balanced with good structure, a subtle graphite note lending the finish an almost Left Bank personality. Excellent.
Critic scores
Average Score
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Lots of black raspberries, spiced orange, cedary herbs, and floral notes emerge from the 2018 Château La Fleur D'Arthus, a medium-bodied, elegant, nicely textured Saint-Emilion with ripe tannins and outstanding length. Drink this fruit-forward, textured, delicious 2018 over the coming 8-10 years.
The 2018 La Fleur d'Arthus is redolent of crushed red berry fruit, spice, mint, cedar and sweet pipe tobacco. Today, the 2018 comes across as quite tannic and closed. I am not sure it will ever fully emerge, as the tannins are pretty imposing at this stage.
80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, with an average age of a senior half-century. Picked on 1 October and aged 15 months in barriques, 60% new, in which malo took place. Dark, healthy garnet. Rather seductive, mildly evolved nose. Lively, quite leafy nose and zesty fruit plus vigorous but not drying tannins on the palate. The palate is much more youthful than the nose. But this an attractive package with real potential. (JR)