Updated: Feb 8, 2023
Quite a fruit-intense example, this bottle gives a good sense of fleshy blackberry and boysenberry in a relatively supple frame. This St Julien type of elegant personality readies for immediate consumption. It remains an attractive quintessential Pauillac well-balanced through using two grapes(72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Merlot, matured in 60% new oak). It gathers momentum in the glass and develops a subtle mint accent. The palate reflects that the nose is medium-bodied with supple, lithe tannin, well-balanced, with long length. Cedary and minty finish. Consistent scores in the range of 93 to 94.
94Neal Martin, Wine Advocate (224), April 2016
There’s an immediate appeal to the nose and palate. Both are bathed in blackberries and dark plums. The tannins are superbly cut and very long and fresh. The oak chimes in with spicy flavors and bolsters plush grape tannins in a harmonious finish. Try from 2022. Edited.
94James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, February 2018
Bright limpid crimson. Quite tense and exciting spiciness on the nose. Rich and ripe. Quite forward but has a good savoury undertow. Lots of energy. Dry but not drying end. A good effort! Nothing forced.
Drink 2024-2040
93 Derek Smedley MW, DerekSmedleyMW.co.uk, April 2016
Christel Spinner, the talented oenologist at Grand-Puy-Lacoste, applies her special touch tothis wine, too. Sourced from sandier soils, it’s often a little lighter in style, but that’s not the case here. The wine has good grip and structure with stylish, toasty oak for support.
Drink: 2020-28
Deep ruby with a tight rim. Lively and fresh with attractive flavours and velvety tannins. Well made, with a bit of extraction with good balance. This bottle is an early-drinking wine but will offer much early-term drinking pleasure—full-bodied wine with an array of alluring flavours ranging from plums and blackberries to cedar. The tamed tannins are still dominating at the moment—moderately long length. She starts drinking fine.
Contrasting scores. RP has yet to score with quite some awards at the 88 to 90 level. Hence it is cheap as a Second Growth of Margaux. However, two insiderd give a relatively high score, for example:
94 Gilbert Gaillard
2011 Vintage Tasted: May 2012
EN PRIMEUR - Deep garnet-red. The profound nose of ripe red fruits with delicate oak and graphite. Rich, full and warm palate intermixing red fruit and oak. Closely integrated, warm, fat and long across the palate. Edited.
94 VertdeVin
2011 Vintage Tasted: Sep 2022
The nose is powerful and precise and offers a friendly power and finesse of grain. There are notes of ripe blackcurrant, crunchy Morello cherry and more slightly violet combined with touches of lily and bergamot, as well as fine points of camphor, spices and a subtle hint of pepper. The palate is fruity and balanced and offers a nice minerality, lovely fruit juiciness, precision, fine chewiness, and a specific purity. On the palate, this wine expresses morello cherry, pulpy/juicy blackcurrant and more slightly crunchy strawberry notes combined with hints of violet, crushed currants, hints liquorice, bergamot, subtle hints of sweet blond tobacco as well as a slight hint of liquorice, a very discreet hint of colas and a subtle hint of a sense of place and saline/grave minerality. The tannins are precise and racy. Good length. A very pretty, fresh and crunchy wine. Edited.
Château Rauzan-Gassies was classified as a second growth in the 1855 Classification of the Médoc and Graves, and like many wines in the appellation. The 28-hectare (70-acre) vineyard is located on gravelly soils, which are typical of the area. Cabernet Sauvignon makes up around two-thirds of plantings, with Merlot and a tiny amount of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot making up the rest. Wines are vinified in modern stainless steel vats, with alcoholic and malolactic fermentations happening simultaneously. Château Rauzan-Gassies typically spends a year in oak barrels, around a quarter of which are new. In the 18th Century, the estate was a part of the vast Rauzan estate, which by 1855 split into châteaux Rauzan-Gassies, Rauzan-Ségla, Desmirail and Marquis de Terme. Since 1945, Rauzan-Gassies has been owned by the Quié family, who also own Bel Orme and Croizet-Bages.
Deep ruby colour with tight garnet rim. It opens up fine with some complexity, mainly from using four varieties, with 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc. The first nose is filled with maturity-classy and complex tones, delicate woods, black(red) currant, cherries, prune, and black tea. The palate reflects the nose and is accessible, soft, medium-bodied, easy to drink, not particularly powerful and a little less robust than Barton can be, but already very accessible, with integrated tannins and a fresh acid structure. Medium length in the finish and balanced in itself. Not a great vintage but a great drinking pleasure.
The score is consistently high, for example:
WE 94–96. Barrel sample. Firmly tannic, this wine is dry and extracted. There's potential for this powerful, impressive wine to bear its very dry character with the weight of its fruit. Edited.
VertdeVIn 95. The nose is fruity and fresh and offers some minerality and good definition. There are notes of crunchy blackberry, crushed strawberry and more slightly crushed raspberry combined with touches of blueberry, delicate hints of liquorice, and cardamom, as well as discreet hints of vanilla and almost sweet blond tobacco. The palate is fruity, well-balanced, stretched out, and precise and offers suppleness, good definition, a certain gourmandise, power with delicacy, harmony and an acidic structure. On the palate, this wine expresses juicy/acidic blackberry, crunchy redcurrant and slightly fresh plum notes with a touch of fresh violet, delicate vanilla/vanilla bean, zan and a subtle, almost sappy edge (in the background) and a discreet hint of chocolate. Nice acidity and ripe/acidic, juicy fruit. Edited.
