Château La Dominique 2023 Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé

Decanter
95/100 punten
Beautiful floral aromatics, pot pourri and fresh flowers - smells gorgeous, roses, raspberries and red cherries with some milk chocolate and blueberries too. Nicely alive on the palate, upfront and forward, a juicy undercurrent lifting the structure. Clean and clear with a soft chalkiness to the ripe but cool red and blue fruits. Perhaps not as plump as usual, but there’s real finesse to the tannins, fruit and acidity. Lots of wet stones and graphite touches with a minty menthol element at the end. Excellent definition, there’s no faulting the precision on show. Great work from Gwendeline Lucas and winemaker Yann Monties with consultant Julien Viaud. 60% grand vin production. A yield of 49hl/ha. 3.85pH. Earliest and longest harvest at the estate, starting on September 6 until the 28 for the Merlots and from September 28 to October 3 for the Cabernets. Ageing 50% in new oak.

James Suckling
(94-95)/100 punten
This is linear and very fine-tannined with a crunchy undertone and a lovely medium to full body. Pretty, ripe fruit at the end, but always fresh. Racy and refined with structure.

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
(93-95)/100 punten
Elegant is the keyword here. The wine is medium-bodied, edgy, and fresh, with soft, and silky tannins. The fruits are bight, crisp, and clean, with touches of mint, licorice, spice and tobacco in the mid-palate. The finish focuses you on the energetic raspberries, cherries, and plums, with their tobacco, mint, and spicy character. The wine blends 88% Merlot, with 12% Cabernet Franc, 14.1% ABV, 3.85 pH. The wine is aged in 50% new, French oak, and 10% amphora. Harvesting took place September 6 - October 3. Drink from 2026-2045.

Jeb Dunnuck
(92-94+)/100 punten
The 2023 Château La Dominique is based largely on Merlot (there are small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon) from the northern portion of Saint-Emilion, just across from the Pomerol border. Its darker nose of red and black fruits, roasted herbs, sappy herbs, and graphite carries to a more medium-bodied Saint-Emilion with a compact, focused mouthfeel, beautiful mid-palate depth, building tannins, and a great finish. It's one of the more inward, serious 2023s and is going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age. The quality here continues to play up with the top wines in the appellation, and this is one of those insider wines readers should snatch up. Tasted multiple times.

Neal Martin, Vinous
(88-90)/100 punten
The 2023 La Dominique has a well-defined bouquet: a mixture of red and black fruit, undergrowth and wilted rose petals. This is a much more refined example from the estate. The palate is medium-bodied with mocha-tinged fruit and moderate depth, quite old school in style with a touch of leather on the finish. It's fine, but I would like just a tad more vivacity by the time of bottling. A second bottle toward the end of my tastings showed better than the first.