2023 Saintayme
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Tasting notes
This may be the entry point for the Durantou range, but it’s a stunning wine in 2023. The nose is tight at first, revealing plummy tones and leading to a lovely, fresh, juicy core of fruit. It’s chalky and vibrant, layered with crunchy red fruit. Aged in 30% new oak, with 14.6% alcohol. Blend: 100% Merlot
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Average Score
James Suckling
Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate
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The 2023 Saintayme is all Merlot brought up in 30% new oak. It’s a beautiful, ripe, textured, mineral-driven effort that has classic darker cherry and berry fruit, chalky minerality, subtle tobacco and herbal notes, and ripe yet certainly present tannins. It should be an outstanding wine.
On the floral side of the style range, the wine also displays cocoa, cherry, herbs, spices, and walnuts. The palate is medium-bodied, with soft, silky and vibrant, red plums, cherries, and chocolate in the finish. This will be ready-to-go on release and age for more than a decade after that. The wine is produced from 100% Merlot, 14.6% ABV.
Saintayme 2023 is 100% Merlot and has a deep garnet-purple color. It zooms out of the glass with ready-to-go notes of baked plums, black cherries, and boysenberries, followed by underlying hints of dark chocolate and bay leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers a great intensity of black fruit and savory layers, with a firm backbone of grainy tannins and lively acidity, finishing long and savory.