2023 Chateau Belair-Monange Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

There’s finesse and beauty to this, with blackberry, dark-chocolate, bark, mushroom and forest-floor character. But it’s all class. Caresses your palate. Medium- to full-bodied and very long. Persistent and sophisticated. This shows the true character of the diverse vineyards of this estate. 98% merlot and 2% cabernet franc.

Ripe red and black fruits, chocolaty minerality, graphite, and spring flowers all emerge from the 2023 Château Bélair-Monange, a brilliant Saint-Emilion that delivers the goods. Coming from a mix of the upper plateau and the hillside just outside the village, it's 100% Merlot aged 16-18 months in 50% new French oak. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a layered, oh, so polished, graceful mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It has absolute classic Saint-Emilion limestone-driven minerality, and I'd be thrilled to drink a bottle today given its balance, purity, and elegance, yet it deserves 5-7 years of bottle age and will see its 30th (probably 40th) birthday in fine form. It reminds me slightly of an improved 2012. Drink 2031-2063.

The 2023 Bélair-Monange was picked September 11 to 29 at around 45hL/ha. It has a very intense very well-defined bouquet: black cherries mulberry and light iodine mixed with estuarine scents—scintillas of kelp and oyster shell in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins very fresh and animated. Focused and mineral-driven the 2023 has one of the most refined finishes that you'll find on the Right Bank this year. This is a very strong follow-up to the 2022 and it may even surpass it though this is cut from a very different cloth insofar that it is unapologetically more classic in style.

The 2023 Bélair-Monange is terrific. I find it much more reserved than in most recent years in a very good way. Bright acids and beams of tannin shape this super-classic Saint-Émilion. It’s a style I like very much. Hints of dark-toned fruit leather dried herbs and spice build into the potent layered finish. This is impeccably done. It will be interesting to see what Edouard Moueix coaxes from Bélair-Monange now that he has a brand-new cellar. Will the wines be extroverted as they were in the early going or more reserved like the 2023? 2032-2063

The 2023 Belair Monange is the first vintage from this newly created property that incorporates a balance of fruit from the plateau and fruit from the hillsides as restructured and replanted parcels are returning to production. Wafting from the glass with attractive aromas of raspberries violets and kirsch mingled with hints of incense licorice and rose petals it's medium to full-bodied fleshy and layered with a deep and textural core of fruit lively acids and powdery tannins retaining a cool ethereal profile that foregrounds its limestone origins.