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Having been ridiculed (unfairly, in our opinion) in the movie, "Sideways," Merlot sometimes gets a bad rap as a beginner wine. We respectfully disagree. The Merlot grape, like many, can make fine wines for daily drinking as well as the best Merlots, sought out by collectors for their fine pedigree. Many of today's best-selling red blends contain Merlot as their backbone and some of the highest priced wines in the world (Château Pétrus in Bordeaux, for example) also use Merlot.
Merlot is versatile, which is why you'll find it planted in both warmer and cooler climates around the world. Besides Bordeaux, Merlot is also produced in the US, Australia, Chile, and elsewhere.
So here is an ode to Merlot. We know you well, and though we do not always sing your praises, we must give you your due as one of the greats.
JD94+94+ pts. - Jeb Dunnuck - February 28, 2019 Incorporating 20% Cabernet Franc, the Merlot-dominated 2016 Château Barde Haut is one of the darker colored wines in the lineup. It offers a Grand Cru Burgundy-like purity and elegance as well as beautiful cassis and darker fruits, smoked earth, black cherries, and damp earth aromas and flavors. This medium to full-bodied, balanced, yet tight, backward, pure effort needs a solid 5–7 years of cellaring to round into form, but it’s beautifully balanced and packed with potential. (Jeb Dunnuck)JS93+93–94 pts. - JamesSuckling.com - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 Lots of blueberry and blackberry character here. Medium to full body, firm and silky tannins and a savory finish. Should develop beautifully. Exciting young wine.VN92+92–95 pts. - Vinous - Apr 2017 The 2016 Barde-Haut is a racy, voluptuous beauty. Mocha, espresso, plum, black cherry and smoke race across the palate in a dark, sumptuous Saint Émilion loaded with class and personality. This is an especially up-front style. With time in the glass, the wine gains brightness and precision to balance things out. The 2016 is easily one of the best recent versions of Barde-Haut I can remember tasting. Today, it is fabulously beautiful.RP92+92–94 pts. - Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate - 28th Apr 2017 The 2016 Barde-Haut is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, vinified without SO2, matured around 80% in new 300-liter barrels from three cooperages and the remainder in one-year-old barrels. Hélène Garçin-Léveque told me that they are focusing on the elegance of their Saint Emilion estate and are picking a little earlier and practicing slightly less extraction. It has a really quite gorgeous bouquet with layers of ripe black plum and wild strawberry notes tinged with sloes. This has very fine delineation and focus. The palate is very well balanced with super-fine tannin, very well judged acidity and tension that lasts from start to finish. This is certainly one of the most feminine Barde-Haut wines that I have tasted from barrel, expressing more precision and finesse. It is an excellent follow-up to the 2015 Barde-Haut and may well surpass it in the long-term.SP91+91–94 pts. - Wine Spectator - Web only – 2017 Juicy, with good bramble and plum cake accents along the edges of the cherry, blueberry and raspberry preserve flavors. Judicious toast lets the fruit shine through the finish while keeping the energy up.
JS9090 pts. - JamesSuckling.com - Sunday, February 3, 2019 There’s a red-berry core here with bright, zesty and attractive fruit in a lighter-bodied, flavorful style. Juicy resolve. Neat, fresh finish. Drink or hold.
JS98+98–99 pts. - JamesSuckling.com - Tuesday, April 4, 2017 A purity of fruit marks this Margaux with lots of currant and berry character. Full body, bright acidity and round tannins. It’s a larger and more expanded style of Margaux. A wine with a heart and body. Strong.RP97+97–99 pts. - Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate - 28th Apr 2017 The 2016 Chateau Margaux is a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc, plus 1% of Petit Verdot, representing 28% of the total production. This is the highest proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon apart from 2013, which was due to the poor Merlot. It was cropped around 50 hectoliters per hectare depending on the grape variety, for example it could be up to 65 hectoliters per hectare in some sectors. Lucid in color, it has a detailed and precise bouquet with mineral-rich blackberry, raspberry coulis and limestone scents. It feels very perfumed, though not powerful like many Grand Vins in 2016. The palate is a different creature to the aromatics. Here is the intensity of the vintage with shimmering black fruit laced with spice, a killer line of acidity and an irresistible crescendo on the finish. Then, graphite lingering on the aftertaste, a nod to Pauillac perhaps. The aftertaste is so long you could probably write a letter to your friend enthusing about this wine before the aftertaste fades. Doubtless it is destined to be compared to the magnificent 2015 Château Margaux and to be truthful, there’s a hair’s breadth between them. In a word: crystalline.VN97+97–100 pts. - Vinous - Apr 2017 The 2016 Margaux is magnificent in the best tradition of the Château Margaux style, which always speaks more to finesse than power. Above all else, the 2016 is a wine of superb persistence, understated power and total refinement. There is wonderful depth and intensity to the ripe red and purplish-hued fruits, accompanied by mint, rose petal and sweet spice overtones that develop in the glass. The 2016 finishes with great aromatic lift and freshness. It has been absolutely compelling on the two occasions I have tasted it so far.WE97+97–99 pts. - Wine Enthusiast - 6/1/2017 This Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine is packed with firm tannins and a dark, dense structure. It is seriously concentrated and powerful in its impression. Magnificent fruit contrasts with the structure to suggest a wine ready for long-term aging.
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Château Barde-Haut Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
