This is a luscious and beautiful young wine with blackberry, hazelnut, dark-chocolate and black-olive character. It’s full and layered with round, soft tannins and a caressing finish. Great finish. Seductive young wine. Best after 2027 and onwards.

“From one of my favorite estates in Pomerol, the deep purple-hued 2019 Château Le Gay checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc brought up in mostly new French oak. This is a ripe, sexy, superrich, blockbuster styled effort with awesome aromatics (cassis, spice, tobacco, damp earth, and chocolate), a deep, layered mid-palate, ripe tannins, and an awesome finish. This is a 2019 barrel sample I thought about drinking.” June 2020

Expressive and fragranced on the nose. Plush and ample on the palate, rich and densely packed full of concentrated flavours with a steely, minty, liquorice tone that gives a spiced touch to the taste as well as seering freshness. There is also a delicate florality that lifts the overall frame adding a refinement and sense of elegance to the powerful frame. One to hold onto for a few years before opening.

A brilliant Le Gay, plump and rich as is the estate signature, with full-on tannins that close in towards the end of play. Very true to the spirit of the property, and a good reflection of Pomerol also, overloaded with blueberry and blackberry flavour, great floral aromatics, packs a punch. New cellar, with integral vinification in barrel. Harvest September 16 to October 3. A yield of 35hl/ha.
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 18 May 2020)
Part of Best Pomerol 2019 wines tasted en primeur

The 2019 Le Gay has become a little more exotic since I tasted the barrel sample, offering macerated small red cherries and clove, plus touches of kirsch coming through with time. The medium-bodied palate displays ripe tannins and gentle grip. Quite a solid Pomerol, in the typical style of this estate, with impressive substance on the finish. I sense a bit of post-bottling awkwardness here, but it will come good with bottle age.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2019 Le Gay springs forth with exuberant scents of crushed black cherries, warm blueberries and boysenberries with nuances of cedar chest, Indian spices, licorice and chargrill. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is chock-full of ripe black fruits and loads of spicy sparks, framed by plush tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing long and decadent.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown, June 2020

The 2019 Le Gay is sleek, nuanced, and full of potential. Dark, sumptuous and inviting, with notes of dark cherry, plum, chocolate, licorice, spice, menthol and espresso, Le Gay is especially fine in 2019. It is rich, racy and exotically ripe, but not at all overly heavy - and that's a combination that works very well. June 2020

Smooth, silky tannins, holding tight onto black cherry and damson fruits. This is great quality, with plenty of Pomerol character, smoked and grilled almonds and dark chocolate, fresh mint leaf keeps the core lively, plenty of life ahead. Good stuff from Vignobles Péré Vergé.

The 2019 Le Gay is rich and powerful, offering up aromas of cherries, berry fruit liqueur, kirsch and dark chocolate, framed by a lavish application of creamy new oak. Full-bodied, broad and layered, it's a ripe, heady wine with low acidity and plenty of powdery tannin, showing a touch of alcoholic heat on the finish. From a site that naturally delivers early and elevated maturity, with heat-retentive gravel over clay soils, it's all fermented in barrel to permit extreme selection, picking small lots within parcels in pursuit of optimal maturity. There's no doubting the quality of the site or the attention to detail in the cellar, but to my palate, this flirts with over-ripeness; my score gives it the benefit of the doubt.

Tasted blind. Mid blackish garnet. Animal, gamey nose. Dense and rich and ambitious. Luscious texture. (JR)