2016 Château Les Ormes-de-Pez
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Tasting notes
The 2016 Ormes de Pez was the biggest surprise of the blind tasting. No-one predicted such a strong showing and it proved its mettle not once, but twice. It has a well-defended and complex bouquet with black fruit, melted tar, freshly rolled tobacco and sous-bois scents emerging with time. Good intensity. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, gentle but insistent grip, white and black pepper sprinkled over the structured and very persistent finish. A big Left Bank '16 but there is also finesse here. Outstanding. Tasted twice blind at the Southwold 10-Year-On tasting (just to check!)
Critic scores
James Suckling
Wine Spectator
More reviews and scores
A brilliant St Estèphe value in a vintage where you can almost buy blind in this appellation. Tight tannins even after a few hours of opening in bottle (not decanting), this has lashings of bitter dark chocolate, cocoa beans, espresso, cinammon shavings, mandarin peel and damson fruits, this has many years ahead of it. Owned by the Cazes family of Lynch Bages, 45% new oak. On deep gravel soils, picked by hand between September 27 and October 11, on its second year of optical sorting at this point.
The 2016 Les Ormes de Pez has an open bouquet of red plum, wild strawberry, leather and sous-bois aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant tannins, displaying more roundness and softness than its peers, but thankfully harmonious and lightly spiced (Szechuan peppers?) on the finish. Nice persistence here, and probably a more approachable Saint-Estèphe. Returning after 15 minutes, I noticed just a little more leafiness on the finish. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting.
Tasted blind. Very slightly muddy nose but intense and ripe. Focused but the acidity is pretty emphatic. Just a bit less vital than some of its peers in 2016. Though the finish is extremely energetic. (JR)
About the producer
The Cazes family – owners of Lynch-Bages – added this Saint-Estèphe Cru Bourgeois estate to their portfolio in 1940, just one year after they purchased Lynch-Bages. The property comprises 32 hectares of vines in the north of the appellation, close to the village of Pez.