The local bad boy of Bordeaux, Jean-Luc Thunevin, continues to fashion truly brilliant wines, and his 2019 is no exception. Based largely on Merlot with small amount of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 Château Valandraud is a deep purple-hued beauty offering up a kaleidoscope-like bouquet of black and blue fruits, scorched earth, chocolate, gravelly earth, spicy oak, and sappy flowers. Deep, rich, full-bodied, and wonderfully concentrated, it has insane purity of fruit, brilliant tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and just has everything in the right places. It's up with the top wines of the vintage and a tour de force that readers should snatch up. It shows a very different style than the sexier 2018, but it's every bit as good. It needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will evolve for 2-3 decades.

Scoring at the top of the range, this is a majestic vintage of Valandraud that is packed and stacked with waves of inky, purple colored, black cherries, plums, mint, espresso, cocoa, licorice, flowers and crushed rocks. Full-bodied, rich, intense, opulent, complex and with a fruit-filled, velvet-textured, non-stop finish, this is already a treat in your glass. Drink from 2026-2055. Tasted March 2022

Extremely polished and refined red with structure. It’s full-bodied, yet ever so refined and balanced. The tannins are very fine-grained. Chewy, yet energetic and precise. Tight and integrated at the end.

The 2019 Valandraud is sensational. Stunning in its delineation and with sheer energy, the 2019 dazzles right out of the gate. Dark red/purplish berry fruit, mocha, new leather, licorice and lavender all come alive in the glass. In 2019, Valandraud is a towering, statuesque wine that captures all the best the vintage had to offer. I tasted the 2019 three times and it was magnificent on all three occasions. It is a tremendous effort from Jean-Luc Thunevin and his Murielle Andraud. What a wine!

Right from the first nose you get deep, richly textured plum fruit, with nuances of chocolate shavings and baked earth. Pencil lead through the mid palate combines the restrained tug of limestone with the confidence of a wine that knows how to make an impression. This is great stuff, really well controlled, carefully but still exuberantly extracted, and one that you would be extremely happy to own. This is the last year in the old winery, with the fancy new one built into the St Emilion hillside, opening as of 2020. A yield of 40hl/ha. 100% new oak.
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 18 May 2020)
Part of Best St Emilion 2019 wines tasted en primeur

The 2019 Valandraud remains deep in color and yes, the bouquet marches out of the glass with its upfront, precocious aromas of black cherry and boysenberry fruit, plus touches of pressed violet crushed stone. The palate is medium-bodied, complex and harmonious, with fine, very supple tannins, a keen line of acidity and a slightly creamy-textured finish. As I mentioned in my previous note, it belongs within the top tier of Right Bank wines in this vintage.

Deep purple-black colored, the 2019 Valandraud sings of freshly crushed black plums, warm blackberries and black cherry coulis with nuances of lavender, cinnamon stick, clove oil and aniseed with a fragrant waft of candied violets. Full-bodied, the palate is both densely laden with concentrated black fruits and wonderfully refreshing, with a firm backbone of velvety tannins, finishing with lingering exotic spice sparks.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown, June 2020