Chateau Martet, Reserve de Famille Rouge, Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux

Very concentrated style Merlot. Nice fruit but a bit harsh (overextracted). Pepper, mint, tobacco, oak, blackberry, cocoa. @Toki

One of my absolute favorite wines! Oh, how good this is. Still young but yet maturely complex with wonderfully sublime smokiness; cigar box, truffle, dry leather, a hint of vanilla, and a large bunch of fresh spices. Plum and cherry coexist with black currant and blackberry. Incredibly well-balanced with great texture and deliciously smooth, well-polished tannins. Looong finish. A fantastic wine and a great vintage.

Very sunny and dry year. Expect a more powerful version of the 2017, with dark red robe, nose dark fruits (prune blackberry and truffle) and mouth dark fruits, very smooth, no agressivity. Complex, balanced, robust and fleshy. Very elegant wine. Plants from 2006, 18 month barrick (new from Radoux). Merlot on clay-limestone ferrous gravel soil. Decant 1 to 2 hours before serving.

This is perfectly acceptable now. The extended drink window makes me wonder where it will be in 5 years. With 3 bottles I can space the tasting out.

This wine took for ever to come good, but it is now completely on song. Soft tannins, mature fruit, sweet aftertaste - well above its station. A great pleasure. Should last for a few years yet.

The colour of the Reserve was dark red and still rather adolescent looking. No clear discolouration on the rim. In the first hours the bouquet showed typical fragrances of plums, coffee, earth, a bit spicy herbs and not so typical ones of cola and jamón serrano. After three to four hours the nose calmed and presented itself more and more very typical, to my knowledge a bit astoundingly autumnish, refined and decently perfumed. Very Merlot'ish. Right from the start the …