The inky/purple-colored 2011, a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, offers loads of cassis, blueberry and raspberry fruit along with a chalky minerality. It is a full-bodied, dense, long wine built like an NFL middle linebacker. Filled with power, intensity, texture and richness, it will handsomely pay dividends over the next two decades. Virtually every vintage of this wine has been massive, with the off-the-charts sort of richness that tends to provoke a -love it or leave it- attitude from wine buyers. It comes from the finest parcel of the Fombrauge vineyard (owned by Bernard Magrez) and is meant to last 25 years.

I like the blueberry and blackberry character with minerals and hints of oak. Full and velvety. Well made and very polished for the vintage.

The nose is rather taciturn with subdued dark cherry and blueberry fruit. The palate is actually well balanced with pure cassis and blackberry fruit, a fine net of tannins with fine precision and length. Perhaps the growing season has contained this habitually ostentatious wine. Not bad. Tasted April 2012.

Drink 2016-2026 Looks more developed at the rim than the Fombrauge. Sweet, thick, black cherry aromas. Rather painful exaggeration of acidity on the finish. Very dense. Full marks for trying but I prefer the Fombrauge.