Château Berliquet 2018

The 2018 Château Berliquet vintage departs from its predecessors, showcasing a shift from austerity to elegance.

This stylistic change is evident from the start of our tasting, with the wine offering powerful blue fruit, giving plummy and forward flavours that linger. The palate is dense, hinting at its potential; lengthen is medium. This is the first vintage crafted by Nicolas Audebert and the technical team at Canon following Chanel's acquisition of the estate in 2017. The blend is a unique combination of 78% Merlot and 22% Cabernet Franc. Scores are reasonably high, such as:

96 points Jeb Dunnuck

A rough blend of 78% Merlot and 22% Franc made by the team at Canon (Thomas Duclos also consults here), the 2018 Château Berliquet sports a deeper purple colour as well as a complex, layered style in its black raspberry, white flowers, dried earth, spice, and forest floor aromas and flavours. It's medium to full-bodied and has a rounded, expansive texture, beautiful tannins, brilliant freshness and purity, and a serious kick of minerality on the finish. Coming from a smaller 10-hectare terroir located on the clay and limestone soils on the upper plateau, it will spend 16 months in 45% new French oak. Tasted twice. (5/2019). Edited.

95 points, James Suckling

A fine and fruity red with blueberries and blackberries and hints of walnuts. Medium to full body and ultra-fine tannins that melt into the body of the wine. It's muscular in some ways. Lots of potential. Punchy. (3/2019). Edited.

95 points Wine Advocate

This was Nicolas Audebert's first vintage at Berliquet since Chanel acquired the property in the autumn of 2017. The most significant, immediate change from 2018 came from noticing that blocks of the vineyard had Merlot and Cabernet Franc interplanted. These used to be harvested together. This year, the different cultivars were flagged and harvested separately to achieve optimal ripeness for both varieties. The 2018 Berliquet is blended with 78% Merlot and 22% Cabernet Franc and has 14.5% alcohol. Deep purple-black, it leaps from the glass with bold kirsch, blueberry compote and Black Forest cake with touches of cloves, lavender, menthol and lilacs. Medium to full-bodied and elegant, with lovely freshness lifting the densely packed blue and black fruit flavours, it has a velvety texture and long, earthy finish. (LPB) (4/2019). Edited.

94 points Wine Spectator

This is a focused, restrained style, with cherry, plum, and red currant notes carried by persistent chalky minerality. It shows a light tobacco shading throughout (JM, Web Only-2019). Edited.