2006 Bellevue - St Emilion (Pre-arrival) (3L)

Continue Shopping Add to Wish List

Displays intense aromas of bright fruit and fresh flowers, with hints of just picked herbs. Full-bodied, with vanilla, berry and cherry character and chewy tannins. A solid wine. Best after 2012.- (06/2009)

Deep, bright ruby. Flamboyant nose combines liquid graphite, tropical dark chocolate, licorice, violet and roasted oak. Dense and powerful if a bit youthfully musclebound, even monolithic, with superconcentrated dark fruit and chocolate liqueur flavors. This very full wine showed a lusher texture with air, with a total absence of any rough edges. Finishes with big, chewy, spreading tannins that reach the front teeth. A rock-solid and very impressive young Saint-Emilion that needs at least five years to burn off some of its baby fat.- Stephen Tanzer (5/29)

This is a wine that I appear to have badly misjudged when tasting out of barrel. I had the bottled 26 Bellevue several times, and it was consistently hard, austere, and lean. Generally I love what this great terroir, surrounded by such famous names as Angelus and the two Beausejours, can produce. Moreover, there is no doubting the genius of the two men responsible for this wine, Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt. Nevertheless, I was surprised to see just how hard, austere, and angular this wine is. It is hard to find any charm or deep, concentrated, ripe fruit in this muscular, structured, forbiddingly tannic, and seemingly out of balance wine.- Robert Parker (2/29)