The 2019 Dragon de Quintus has turned out nicely, delivering a generous bouquet of rich, plumy fruit and creamy new oak. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's seamless and polished, with its sweet core of fruit framed by ripe tannins and succulent acids, concluding with an expansive finish. As usual, this bottling tends to derive from lower-lying parcels on deeper, sandier soils than those that inform the grand vin.

The 2019 Le Dragon de Quintus is lively and boisterous on the nose with plenty of brambly red fruit, briary and light rose petal aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with blackberry and red plummy fruit, a little "chunky" but very fresh with a surfeit of joie-de-vivre on the finish.

The 2019 Le Dragon de Quintus is an attractive second wine. Crushed flowers, mint, sweet red berry fruit and spice notes are all laced together in this racy, mid-weight Saint-Émilion. The 2019 needs time to come together, as some angular contours remain. The Dragon is made mostly from the lower slopes on the property, where the extreme heat of the vintage was impossible to fully escape.

Rich and sweet with an edge of acidity. Not that harmonious but quite dramatic. Grainy finish. Easy to appreciate. (JR)