1999 Château Valandraud
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Tasting notes
The 1999 Valandraud has a surprisingly dark color and seems very youthful for its age. It is concentrated and heady, offering copious dark cherry and black currant fruit, a touch of camphor, crème de cassis and, later, a hint of Japanese nori . The medium-bodied palate presents a sweet core of ripe, rounded black fruit tinged with charcoal. Quite caressing in mouth, with moderate acidity, but missing the complexity that I was hoping for. Perhaps it will develop a little more personality with bottle age, as there is good substance here. Tasted December 2016.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
Tasted at the Valandraud vertical at the property, the 1999 Valandraud has a dark color and seems very youthful for its age. It is very concentrated and heady with copious dark cherry and blackcurrant fruit, a touch of camphor, crème de cassis and later, a hint of Japanese nori. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe, rounded black fruit. It has a sweet core of black fruit tinged with charcoal, moderate acidity, quite caressing in mouth albeit missing the complexity that I was hoping for. Perhaps it will develop a little more personality with bottle age, as there is good substance here. Tasted December 2016.
Sweet coffee, mocha, leather, and black cherry and currant flavors dominate the pure, well-delineated, opulently-textured, hedonistic 1999 Valandraud. It possesses definition, length, and a singular personality. Anticipated maturity: now-2015. Wine Advocate.April, 2002
About the producer
One of the first garage wines, Ch. Valandraud was created by Jean-Luc Thunevin – Saint-Emilion’s “bad boy”. Today the style of the wine is much more restrained, and officially classified as a Premier Grand Cru Classé B estate.