This has a focus and intensity that I haven’t seen before. I goes wide in the palate and then compresses with great precision and beauty. Full and excellent. So great. Best I ever had from here.

The 2015 Bellevue Mondotte remains the most tannic and brooding of Gérard Perse's three top Saint-Émilions. Inky blue/purplish fruit, graphite, menthol, licorice, plum and crème de cassis infuse the sumptuous Bellevue Mondotte, which is remarkably nuanced for such a potent wine. Despite its considerable intensity, the 2015 packs a real punch, especially in its searing tannins. Readers will have to be patient with this muscular wine. I can't wait to taste it in another handful of years. The blend is 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon from 50-year-old vines. Yields were 20 hectoliters per hectare. vinous.com, February 2018

A neighbor of Pavie Decesse, this vintage is composed of 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 100% new French oak. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Bellevue Mondotte is a little youthfully closed, revealing subtle suggestions of plum preserves, blackberry pie and cherry compote plus an undercurrent of violets, mocha and black soil. The full-bodied palate is firm and rugged, packed with taut, muscular fruit and finishes long and earthy. Give it a good 5 years in bottle, at least, and drink it over the next 25+. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Interim Issue Mid-February 2018, The Wine Advocate

Fine 2ha limestone-based estate owned by Gérard Perse of Château Pavie. Dark, savoury, soy and coffee with baked plum. Sweetly, intensely fruited. Massive structure but still juicy and fresh, with mocha and liquorice over wild raspberry and plum. (90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc.)

A lush, modern style, with plum sauce and raspberry påte de fruit flavors backed by a broad swath of melted red licorice and sweet spice notes. Features the caressing feel of the vintage as well.

The 2015 Bellevue Mondotte is the one wine from Gérard Perse that tends to leave me cold. This year it is a blend of 90% Merlot with 5% each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, matured entirely in new oak. It has a very powerful and intense bouquet with sweet ripe blueberry, boysenberry jam and honey-like aromas that almost knock you sideways. The palate is medium-bodied with sweet ripe tannin, not as tannic or as aggressive as I have occasionally discerned this wine, a little gentler and caressing towards the velvety smooth finish that just needs a little more personality to come through. It is always a brute out of barrel, but tends to mellow with bottle age, so don't even think about approaching this young. While it is undoubtedly surpassed by the 2015 Pavie, I am fascinated to see how this shows with age and who knows, maybe I will be proved wrong.

Gérard Perse's 2 ha (5 acre) property on well-drained limestone.
Blackish crimson. Sweet black fruits on the nose. Very round. The fruit masks the tannin completely. Limestone stoniness on the end. 14.72%
Drink 2024-2040