Clos Labarde, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

Dark ruby in color with a reddish rim. Fruity nose and medium plus in body, with medium plus acidity. Dry on the palate with nice complexity. Showing plums, currants, oak, vanilla, licorice, chocolates, herbs, spices, earth, light vegetables, tobacco leaf and peppercorn. Tangy finish with round tannins and tangy raspberries. This is a very tasty 9 year old Merlot from Saint Emilion in Bordeaux. Rich and fruit forward. A little tart right out of the bottle, and needed 90 minutes …

Ripe plum. Silty tannins. Good amount of sediment. Should hold on for a few more years, but don't see it getting any more interesting. Drink.

Ready to drink. Modern style Bordeaux. Seems a bit manufactured for my taste but nonetheless very enjoyable.

The 2016 Clos Labarde we tried, also from Total Wine, was indeed defective and undrinkable, so this wine might also be degraded. But this one is not obviously off, so I don’t know. In any case, the bottle we have strikes us as a poor example of St Emilion, far inferior to the 2016 Monbousquet or Clos de L’Oratoire. The wine is fruit-forward and jammy and lacking in structure.

drank over two nights.. tight on opening.. darker fruit with some minerality/cedar.. stayed tight for the first two glasses. second night opened up beautifully.. fruit was more integrated. a smoky minerality instead of just the minerality. much smoother tannins not as brash..just overall a better glass of wine although the core of the wine did not change much. but more complexity showed through.. this is a rebuy..

Good. Little muted at first and missing some acid, but overall pretty good. I like the penguin review.

Overpowering deep red cherry on the nose, fresh rich chalky mud earth cream and mushroom on the palate. Good acidity. A bit tannic. Like taking a bubble bath in red salt water surrounded by penguins :)

This deep ruby/crimson wine presents an attractive package of ripe Bing cherries, blueberries, licorice, baking spices and tobacco. Medium-bodied, fresh and with beautiful purity of fruit, it wraps its flavors with medium-weight, silky tannins. The oak and alcohol (14.5%) are nicely integrated and the middle palate is solid. Lengthy and impressively smooth on the finish, this one is ready to go! It should provide pleasure for more than a decade. Drink now-2030.