2014 Château Malartic-Lagraviere
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Tasting notes
The 2014 Malartic-Lagravière has a fine, energetic bouquet with blackberry and briar, fine tension and appealing subtle tarry scents. The palate is medium-bodied with sweet licorice-tinged black fruit. The palate doesn't have the panache of the aromatics, and I still find there is a soupçon of under-ripeness towards the finish that is more pronounced at the Southwold tasting when it was served blind. Consequently, I have to downgrade my score.
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More reviews and scores
Tasted blind. Black core with garnet rim. Ripe damsons, almost pruney. Tough, chewy tannins. Chunky and dry on the finish. Seems over-worked. (JH)
Inky blue-ruby in colour, well constructed, emphasis on Cabernet Sauvignon character, pencil lead and tobacco leaf, concentrated but starting to soften up, ready to drink with coaxing. The tannins are a touch austere through the mid palate, suggesting the extraction was a little heavy, with the fingerprint of the vintage.
The 2014 Malartic-Lagravière has a crisp and focused bouquet with precise blackberry and briary scents, a lovely undercurrent of mineralité . The palate is beautifully balanced on the entry with rounded, quite concentrated black fruit. There is a lot of extraction here and I fear that they may have found a touch of under-ripe tannin towards the finish, which is a shame because the nose is so damn gorgeous! Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.
About the producer
One of few estates classified for both red and white wine production, Malartic-Lagravière was renovated entirely after the Bonnie family purchased it in 1996. They also expanded the property to its current 53 hectares.