Château La Gaffelière 2016

Pleasantly fruity, with juicy, medium-bodied tannins and a lovely berry finish. Easy to drink.

Features a good core of dark currant and plum fruit, inlaid liberally with singed alder and tobacco notes. Turns a touch cedary on the finish, but has just enough fruit to keep going. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2020. 10,000 cases made.

A little tighter than the 2015, this is good quality but needs shaking out with a few hours in a carafe. Once it unfurls, you get rose petals on the nose and touches of bitter cherry on the finish. It's worth noting that, as of this 2016 vintage, Clos Gaffeliere is no longer the same blend as Dame de la Gaffeliere (they were alternative names of the second wine depending on the export market) - this is a little more serious in style, while Dame is a little more fruity and often 100% Merlot.

This is really decadent and rich, with great aromas of earth, spice, frost flowers and fresh mushrooms that carry through to a full body, firm, chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Very, very serious from here. A blend of 70 percent merlot and 30 percent cabernet franc. Try after 2025.

The 2016 La Gaffelière has an intense nose with blackberry, cedar and tobacco scents, actually quite Left Bank in style, fresh with an underlying marine influence. The palate is medium-bodied with smooth tannins. Very fine acidity and impressive purity of fruit, lightly spiced, understated but how can you resist its caressing finish. Gorgeous. Tasted at Bordeaux Index's Ten-Year-On tasting.

Deep ruby in color, the wine is round, lush, polished, concentrated and fruity, with these great, crushed rock and floral accents.

Deep dark ruby, firm core, purple reflections with faint brightening on the rim. Delicately floral on the nose underlaid with dark berry fruit, ripe sweet cherries and a mineral touch. Juicy and elegant with fresh fruit, fine tannins, well structured, fine blackberry conserve on the finish. Good ageing potential.

The nose offers some leafy and herbal notes, a hint of wood and red fruit notes. Medium-bodied with a firm tannic core, fresh acidity, discreet fruit, mild oak notes and a rather long finish. A youthful and restrained style still needing time.

The second wine of La Gaffelière and made with consulting advice from Claude Gros, the 2016 Clos La Gaffelière is based on 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, aged in a mix of barrel and concrete. It’s an elegant, medium-bodied Saint-Émilion with good complexity (black cherries, brown earth, damp earth), moderate tannins, good concentration, and a clean, long finish. It’s upfront and ready to go, but I suspect it will keep for 10–15 years or more on its purity and elegance.

Deep purple with garnet glints at the rim. Intense cassis bouquet, with violets and blackberry blossoms in the background. On the firm palate with finely grained notes, finishing on a slightly crumbly finale with plum skin.

Kunz barrel sample 17: fresh, silky bouquet; raspberries, cherries, chalk, fine chocolate. Medium, austere palate with delicate fruit, plenty of fine tannins, muscular structure, powerful aromatics, austere finish.

Fresh, silky bouquet with raspberry, cherry, chalk, and a hint of fine chocolate. Medium, firm palate with delicate fruit, plenty of good tannins, muscular structure, powerful aromatics, austere finish. 17/20 2023 - 2035

Château La Gaffelière offers a fine and well composed nose with classic spiciness and a long and elegant taste of fruit and blackberries with notes of cedar and wood at the end. This is a very fine and classic effort from La Gaffelière and a wine that should have a great aging potential as well.

Powerful, supple, elegant, already showing fine shape, this cuvée offers a foretaste of the great wine to come.

A slightly candied yet superbly elegant nose settles onto a silkier, deeper palate, with a precise verticality of tannins that holds through to the finish. Everything is pure elegance and finesse.

The wine is powerful and dense, with a superb tannic structure. Fruit and spices mingle with notes from the oak (vanilla, coffee), which will integrate over time.

Garnet red. This wine has evolved well over the last 18 months. The bouquet has gained freshness, revealing nuances of red berries and grenadine, followed by a chalky touch. The tannins are silky, perfectly integrated yet also powerful, and fully in tune with the acidic structure. It signals the onset of maturity while still having plenty of time ahead.

Dark, intense, and beautiful color. Moderately intense nose, fruity, pure, but a little discreet. The palate is all about tactile finesse, with graceful texture and a surge of flavor from mid-palate through the finish. Good sapid, refined length. Like many 2016s, this wine is closing down. Note how rare it is in Saint-Emilion to find a great wine with a low alcohol level (13.4%).

The nose is fruity, elegant, precise and racy, with a subtle gourmand touch. It reveals notes of fleshy blackberry, cornflower and, more delicately, blackcurrant, combined with small hints of lilac and red fruits, as well as discreet touches of licorice and an imperceptible hint of camphor/Sichuan pepper. The palate is fruity, balanced and elegant, offering delicacy, juiciness, a racy minerality, precision, a fine acidic backbone, lovely elegance, subtle tension, a clear guideline, a silky texture, and a fine, very tightly knit grain. On the palate, this wine shows notes of blackberry and fleshy blackcurrant, with touches of violet/cornflower, small blue fruits, and subtle hints of licorice and sweet spices/vanilla. The tannins are well handled. A lovely wine!

A warm wine rich in tannins and with succulent berry fruits, this is both powerful and elegant. Its density doesn't detract from the fruitiness that shines out of the wine and balances with the structured aging potential. Drink the wine from 2025.

Fleshy, restrained, impressive, this is a lovely wine with balance and juice, clear black fruit, bitter chocolate, fennel and aniseed spice, superb. 60% new oak for ageing. Also tasted in a recent estate vertical.