The smallest of the Perse estates, this tiny property situated on pure limestone produces a wine made from a blend of 90% Merlot and the rest equal parts Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. One of the superstars of this vintage, the 2012 is opaque purple and exhibits tremendous concentration and richness, a full-bodied mouthfeel, and a layered texture that builds incrementally without any heaviness or cloying characteristics. This is stunning, great, old-style, yet progressively made Bordeaux to drink over the next 25-30 years. The alcohol level is 14.3%.

The Bellevue-Mondotte is arguably the most intriguing of Gérard Perse's 2012s. It is also the least accessible of the wines today. A firm spine of tannin gives the Bellevue-Mondotte much of its personality. Black cherry, smoke, licorice, tar and graphite all take on shades of virility in a wine endowed with vertical structure and pure power. Gérard Perse made just 4,000 bottles from Bellevue-Mondotte, a tiny two-hectare vineyard on Saint-Emilion's clay/limestone plateau. The 2012 is a magical wine, but it will require considerable patience. The blend is 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a stunning wine from Gérard and Chantal Perse and their long-time winemaker Michel Rolland.

Smell of chalk and minerals with dark fruits follow through to a full body, with chewy tannins and structure and a long finish. Bitter chocolate and dark fruits. 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Saturated ruby. At once bright and ripe on the nose, showing oak-driven aromas of blackberry, bitter chocolate and licorice, all lifted by a perfumed violet note. Then bright and creamy on the palate, with plush flavors of sweet dark fruits and spices. Finishes with harmonious building tannins and lingering notes of violet and cocoa. This struck me as one of the least over-extracted Bellevue-Mondotte wines in memory, and it has gained in accessibility and balance as a result.

Deep, beefy and baked black fruit nose. Palate is thick, voluptuous and soft and the fruit powerful and unrelenting. A brute but impressive in its style.

The Bellevue Mondotte, which should be a blend of 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc, had not quite finished its malolactic fermentation when I tasted it in early April. Cropped at 22hl/ha and raised entirely in new oak, it has a hedonistic, very generous, ostentatious bouquet that you might think was born three years earlier. The palate is very ripe and decadent with soft tannins. There is a lot of wood to be subsumed and there is a distinct lactic/chocolate note towards the finish that cuts away a little abruptly. Tasted April 2013.

Drink 2020-2035 (90% Merlot, 5% each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. 100% new French oak.) Colour of elderberry juice. Smells rather like it too. Very ripe, very intense but not porty! Highly extracted, deep in char but the fruit is compact. Tannins also compact and firm but not hard or bitter. Extreme but balanced. Just not my style. (JH)