Tasted blind at the Valandraud vertical at the property, the 1998 Valandraud has a sweet ripe bouquet with scents of dark berries, salted licorices, tobacco and cedar that is very intense and powerful. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. Bizarrely, it almost seems Left Bank in style with cedar and tobacco notes infusing the black fruit, the mintiness suggesting a Pauillac! I love the drive here, the focus and the slight aloofness, a wine that demands respect and is worthy of it. What a great 1998: elegant yet intense, classy yet approachable. I envisage this offering another 10-15 years of drinking pleasure. Tasted December 2016.

Drinking brilliantly today, the 1998 Château Valandraud offers an almost Médoc-like array of ripe black fruits, cedarwood, tobacco, and lead pencil-like aromatics. This trait carries over to the palate as well, where the wine is more medium to full-bodied, has a beautifully balanced, elegant mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. It's certainly a more restrained wine compared to Valandraud today, but it’s still a beautiful, elegant wine to enjoy over the coming decade.

A classic St.-Emilion, the 1998 exhibits a dark plum/purple color as well as an elegant nose of mocha, coffee, cherries, blackberries, and chocolate. It has turned out to be more finesse-styled and less exotic than past vintages. This medium to full-bodied, beautifully concentrated wine reveals chocolate overtones in the aromas and flavors. With exceptional purity, balance, and length, it should turn out to be one of the most elegant Valandrauds yet produced. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2020. Proprietor Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife, Murielle, are the de facto leaders of the St.-Emilion vin de garage effort. If that is not unsettling enough to the Medoc aristocracy, they are now starting up garage operations in Margaux and St.-Estephe.

Saturated ruby-purple. Profound aromas of black and red berries, red cherry, violet, chocolate and toffee, plus an exotic suggestion of mandarin orange. Mouthfilling texture like liquid velvet. Utterly suave and unforced. Flavors at once confectionery and bright. Very long, sweet and fine on the back end, with completely ripe tannins. Thoroughly seductive juice. I was also able to taste the various components of this wine, including an extraordinary cuvee of cabernet franc, picked with grape sugars of 12.5% from a crop level of just 20 hectoliters per hectare.

Quite pale. Fragrant Cab Franc nose. Very gentle and mellow. Relatively lightweight (objectively medium weight) but good balance and refreshing. Perhaps this doesn’t fully capitalise on the ripeness of the 1998 vintage but it has lovely balance and is very succulent. Lovely freshness. Very fine tannins lurking underneath. Very low key but admirably harmonious. (JR)