Château Talbot 2016

Rock 'em, sock 'em St.-Julien, with mouthcoating ganache and tar notes backed by commensurate cassis, blueberry paste and blackberry reduction flavors. The long finish rumbles through, with buried brambly grip providing the support for the dense fruit and toast to meld. Best from 2025 through 2040. 29,833 cases made.

There’s a strong team in place at Talbot, with Jean-Michel Laporte (formerly of La Conseillante) as technical director and Stéphane Derenoncourt as consultant. This has a perfumed elegance on the nose, with spicy blackcurrant aromas. Suave and very concentrated, it shows ample ripe tannins and a discreet oaky structure. Its length should guarantee a good future too.

This is already a beautiful St.-Julien that’s ripe and elegant, with not a jot too much oak or tannin, and a very fresh, lively finish that goes on and on. However, there are some serious reserves in this wine that need time to be released. Already very harmonious, but better from 2021.

Tasted blind. Deep crimson. Rich and sweet. Pretty fluid with a slightly tart finish. Sweet and opulent. Quite flashy. (JR)

The 2016 Talbot is aromatically quite expressive, but less forthcoming on the palate, where it is rather closed. Time in the glass brings out a host of sweet tobacco, smoke, leather, cedar, mint, licorice and red-toned fruit. In two tastings, Talbot gave the impression it will need at least a few years to fully come into its own. Even so, there is plenty to look forward to once the tannins start to melt away a bit. Consultants Stéphane Derenoncourt and Julien Lavenu have done quite a bit to raise the bar here, but I get the sense more is possible. Tasted twice.

The smoke, licorice, espresso, and ripe, dark, spicy fruits all shine with ease here. Round in texture and a touch oaky, the wine leaves you with sweet, dark red fruits, espresso, and licorice, with a nice cedar note.

Deep dark ruby, opaque core, discreet brightening on the rim. Fine plum fruit, a touch of nougat and cassis in the background. Medium complexity, fine blackberry fruit, integrated tannins and some chocolate on the finish. Good ageing potential.

Floral and lifted nose with elegant fruit like red and dark wild berries, cassis, tobacco and fine wood. The palate is dense, savoury and digest with a bright freshness, youthful but ripe tannins, elegant fruit flavours with aromatic herbs, tobacco and a long sustained finish.

Purple with a violet rim. Blueberry bouquet with delicate leafy notes, followed by plenty of tobacco spice and licorice. On the firm palate, a crumbly texture and fine sandy tannins; a burly Talbot that needs time.

Kunz barrel sample 17: silky, subtly bitter bouquet, blue berries, tobacco, cedar. Firm, powerful palate with good fruit, fine sandy tannins, dark aromatics, muscular structure, bitter finish.

Silky, off-dry bouquet, blue berries, tobacco, cedar. A firm, powerful palate with good fruit, fine sandy tannins, dark aromatics, muscular structure, bitter finish. 17/20 2023 - 2038

Young and closed even as it heads towards eight years old, but all the building blocks of a brilliant wine are here. A little soft through the mid-palate compared to some of its 2016 siblings, but this has charm, St-Julien finesse, and great length. Higher Merlot than usual due to the particular success of this variety, yet it remains full of Left Bank character—pencil lead, slate, woodsmoke, blackberry. Eric Boissenot consultant, 50% new oak for ageing, Jean-Pierre Marty director.

Big smoky and cedar notes on the nose, with plenty of finesse and complexity on a dense, expressive, impeccable frame!

Cellar this 2016 with superb structure, brimming with energy and ending on a finish lifted by great minty freshness.

Dense nose, black fruits, red plum. Broad palate, lovely acidity, generous, elegant tannins, very long finish, a digestible wine.

Dense garnet red with violet highlights. Talbot 2016 shows a subtle, complex and classic bouquet where refreshing notes of Cabernet Sauvignon, spices and black berries come together. The attack is delicate, juicy and fruity. On the palate, I also find freshness along with a beautiful tannic structure that supports the entire wine. This slowly reveals itself on the finish and promises a very fine future for this St-Julien. This is a Talbot with character, able to combine power and delicacy—a hallmark of great wines—and this is one of them! It still needs to gain aromatic intensity to reach a higher score, and I see it at 95 or 96/100.

Dark, intense, beautiful colour. An intense, delicate, fruity nose. Precise on the attack, particularly fruity as it develops, refined in texture; the wine gains flesh on a slender frame and finishes smooth and long, with flavour and very good length.

Brought up in 50% new oak, the 2016 Château Talbot is a winner and certainly over-delivers. Powerful notes of crème de cassis, tobacco leaf, lead pencil, and leafy herbs give way to a silky, seamless Saint-Julien with remarkable purity of fruit and building, fine tannins. It’s the texture as well as the purity that set this apart, and readers looking for great value should purchase a case of this beauty.

The smooth texture of this wine is deceptive. Behind its ripe black fruits and acidity, the wine has a strong sense of structure to give shape and potential to the freshness and fruit. The wine will age, not perhaps for the really long term but certainly it is worth waiting until 2025.