The home estate of Chantal and Gerard Perse, the 2001 Monbousquet (a 7,500-case blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon bottled unfined and unfiltered) is a big, flamboyant, sexy offering with a dense ruby/purple color as well as a big, sweet nose of licorice, dried herbs, smoke, black currants, and blackberries. Beautifully textured, medium to full-bodied, opulent, and forward, this is a juicy, succulent, seductive claret to drink over the next 10-12 years.

(60% merlot, 30% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon, cropped at 30 hectoliters per hectare; 14% alcohol) Saturated medium-deep ruby. Highly aromatic nose of cassis, violet, bitter chocolate and spicy oak. Lush, thick and sweet, with a nearly candied ripeness. Seems a bit soft and monolithic today, but impressively sweet and rich. Finishes with lush tannins and a flavor of dark chocolate. From concentrated fruit picked very late.

Very, very deep and thick, but extraordinarily green on the nose. Almost like Carmenère in Chile, i.e. sundried tomatoes. Very, very spicy with some richness and good length, although the tannins and alcohol kick in at the end. Arresting but no fun. (JR)