With an almost Pauillac-like stature and structure, the 2018 Chateau Saint-Pierre (Saint-Julien) (77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot) offers a powerful bouquet of black currants, lead pencil, spicy oak, and chocolate and shows more earth and tobacco as it sits in the glass. Deeply hued, full-bodied, and concentrated, it has a stacked mid-palate, building tannins, and one heck of a great finish.

Aromas of blackberries, currants, dried earth, coffee and chocolate orange, as well as some crushed stone. It’s medium-bodied with firm, tight-grained tannins. Fresh with lingering citrus zest and bitter chocolate. Fine texture.

The 2018 Saint-Pierre (Saint-Julien) is a powerful, muscular wine. Black cherry, gravel, dark spice, menthol, licorice and espresso add to an impression of brooding intensity. Saint-Pierre was so compelling from barrel. It is all that and more from bottle. The tannins are going to need a number of years to soften, but there is so much to look forward to here. Readers should expect a virile, imposing Saint-Julien.

Composed of 77% Cabernet Sauvignon and 23% Merlot, the 2018 Saint-Pierre bursts from the glass with a glorious perfume of kirsch, blackcurrant pastilles, black raspberries and cedar chest with hints of red roses, pencil shavings and spice box. The medium to full-bodied palate coats the mouth with velvety tannins and beautifully knit freshness, supporting the generous black and red berry layers, finishing long and perfumed.

This firm wine shows layers of tannins as well as the warm, rich black fruits typical of the vintage. Black-currant flavors along with the tannins give a dense wine with aging potential.

Sports a beam of cassis, plum puree and blackberry sauce running through the middle while roasted applewood, violet and sweet tobacco notes run along the edges. Everything meets and then extends through the finish, with an echo of warm cast iron at the very end. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.