Château La Gaffelière 1999

The 1999 is an elegant, finesse-styled, medium-bodied effort revealing lovely strawberry and currant fruit with a hint of sour cherries, a judicious touch of oak, medium body, and excellent purity. It creeps up on the taster in subtle increments. I always laugh when critics of Michel Rolland, the great international oenologist who has done so much to improve wine quality throughout the world, say that his wines all taste the same. Do these ignorant observers realize he is the consultant for this stylish, restrained St.-Emilion? Anticipated maturity: now-2015.

Mineral, spice and floral aromas, with hints of aniseed. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins and a fruity finish. Subtle red. Better than from barrel. Best after 2003. 6,665 cases made.

Lively, toasty, zesty claret not too far from drinkability. Quite confident and punchy. (JR)

Extremely deep purple with ruby-red highlights. Very intense, enormously concentrated bouquet: lots of cherry, tobacco, gently woody, very closed. On the palate, firm, again very dense, showing substance, and for the first time also some charm. Has a miracle happened here? If the estate keeps this up, it will soon be back among the 20 best Saint-Émilions—provided the pronounced tannic structure, which requires time to mature, softens a little more.

00: Extremely deep purple with ruby highlights. Very intense, hugely concentrated bouquet; lots of cherries and tobacco, with a gentle touch of oak and still very closed. On the palate it is firm, once again incredibly dense, showing substance and, for the first time, charm. Has a miracle happened here? If it continues on this path, it will finally reclaim its former place among the 20 best Saint-Émilions and will, hopefully, shed a little of its distinctive tannic structure that calls for full maturity. 17/20 2007 – 2026

Deep dark red color. Good intensity. Beautiful. Bright. Nose of medium intensity. Fine. Fruity. Vanilla. With swirling, more intense. Fine. Nuanced. A gentle attack, developing into a slightly flowing body before mid-palate, which could be tighter. Then the wine opens up, caressing, juicy and refined, with a density that remains in line with the 99 and finishes on perfectly extracted, refined and aromatic tannins on the finish. It is delicious and quite sophisticated for a wine with 70% Merlot, but the body remains a little light. It will be worth tasting in 2 or 3 years.