Belair Monange 2018

St Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Classé B

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Tasting Notes

The 2018 Bélair-Monange races across the palate, showing its exuberant, flamboyant personality. Ripe plum, mocha, blood orange, star anise and cinnamon fill out the layers effortlessly. Sumptuous and generous, with striking balance, Bélair-Monange hits all the right notes. It can be enjoyed with minimal cellaring, but also has the pedigree to age effortlessly for decades.

Score: 96

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com Maturity: 2026 - 2058 25 August 2021

The 2018 Bélair-Monange is a bold, racy and exuberant wine endowed with tremendous textural richness and overall intensity. Sweet spice and floral notes wrap around a core of super-ripe stone fruit in this decidedly flamboyant, racy Saint-Émilion. In 2018, Bélair-Monange is not exactly subtle, but it is quite delicious and full of allure. Even so, Bélair-Monange will be enjoyed most by readers who like overt wines.

Score: 93 - 96

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com 01 April 2019

The 2018 Bélair-Monange, so impressive out of barrel, delivers now that it finds itself incarcerated by glass. It is endowed with a seriously impressive nose, delivering blackberry and still that faint warm brick/terracotta scent, shaved black truffle and a touch of clove. You could lose yourself completely in this bouquet. The palate has firmed up a little, displaying more backbone than I recall. The dash of cracked black pepper liberally sprinkled over the finish curiously bears similarities to some of the Pomerols this vintage, and the Cabernet Franc feels much more prominent than its 2% contribution to the blend would suggest. I adore this Saint-Émilion and it is going to benefit from 8–10 years in the cellar... if you can resist temptation that long.

Score: 96

Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2027 - 2050 18 August 2021

The 2018 Bélair-Monange has a plush and generous bouquet: raspberry, redcurrant, warm bricks and light truffle aromas that perhaps cannot compete with the minerality of the Trotanoy tasted alongside. The palate is smooth and velvety on the entry. This Saint-Émilion is endowed with great depth, the tannins saturated and lending its impressive volume. It just requires a tad more tension and detail towards the finish. Nevertheless it will surely mature with style and grace. This is a 2018 barrel sample that showed a lot of melioration in the glass, hence my final score.

Score: 94 - 96

Neal Martin, Vinous.com Maturity: 2024-2050 01 November 2019

An incredible expression of Merlot grown on limestone soils, the 2018 Château Belair-Monange (90/10 Merlot and Cabernet Franc) sports a dense purple hue as well as powerful notes of blackcurrants, kirsch liqueur, flowery incense, chalky minerality, and white truffle. Rich, full-bodied, and beautifully concentrated, it's a serious 2018 offering integrated oak, ripe yet building tannins, and one hell of a great finish. The finest vintage of this cuvée I've tasted, it's a wine to seek out and hide in the cellar for a good 5-7 years. It's going to evolve for 30-40 years.

Score: 98

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com Maturity: 2026 - 2056 18 July 2021

The 2018 Château Bélair-Monange comes from limestone soils (from the upper plateau as well as the hillside) and is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. Its inky purple color is followed by notes of crème de cassis, kirsch, toasted spice, and earth as well as subtle spicy oak. Elegant, seamless, and full-bodied on the palate, with beautiful tannins and a great, great finish, it's a thrilling 2018 that should be approachable with 2-5 years of bottle age and keep for two decades or more. It should match or exceed both the 2015 and 2016.

Score: 95 - 97

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com 01 May 2019

Made from 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Belair Monange rolls effortlessly out of the glass with gregarious scents of black cherry preserves, stewed plums and boysenberries, plus suggestions of Indian spices, rose oil, Ceylon tea and garrigue, with a waft of tilled soil. The rich, seductive, full-bodied palate is laden with black fruit preserves and exotic spice layers, framed by velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and fragrant. Wonderfully hedonic and conceivably drinkable now, give it 4-5 years in the cellar to allow the earthy/savory nuances to fully emerge from within the fruit and drink it over the next 25 years or more.

Score: 98

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2025 - 2050 11 July 2021

A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Belair Monange comes bounding out of the glass with all the energy and vigor of a pedigree puppy, offering notes of warm plums, wild blueberries, black raspberries and Morello cherries with touches of chocolate box, lilacs, underbrush, menthol and damp soil plus a waft of incense. Full-bodied, rich and decadently layered in the mouth, the densely packed layers are charged with energy, supported by firm, velvety tannins and a racy line of freshness, finishing very long and very spicy.

Score: 97 - 99

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com 23 April 2019

This is very linear and structured in a classical way for Bordeaux with a very focused and tight core of beautiful fruit that gives an agile and vivid palate of pretty fruit and bright acidity, not to mention the ultra fine tannins, which deliver a seamless and limitless finish.

Score: 98 - 99

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com 11 April 2019

A gorgeous wine, with concentrated power offset by lift and lyricism. It fully expresses the character and personality of its location on the limestone plateau, showing real juiciness and a focussed minerality, with extremely flavourful crushed raspberry and blackberry fruits, and touches of peony and rose on the nose. This is delicious, graceful, spicy and persistent, with notes that spiral both downwards and upwards. The violet reflections are off the chart.

Score: 97

Jane Anson, Decanter.com 04 April 2019

Ripe and dense in feel, with layers of plum, fig and boysenberry fruit. The structure is decidedly stony, revealing a long echo of tobacco. Among the more backward wines at this early stage, but seriously long and well-built.

Score: 96 - 99

James Molesworth, Wine Spectator 28 March 2019