Château La Gaffelière 2014

Dense and well-built, with firm, polished tannins and great aromatic potential.

A lovely blackberry purée note leads this off, followed by hints of fig and plum. Alluring licorice and juniper flavors start to fill in, backed by an accent of smoldering tobacco. The structure is persistent but very fine-grained. Best from 2020 through 2030. 4,583 cases made.

Things were really getting into their stride at this point at La Gaffelière, with a clear step forward in terms of precision, balance and power. The replanted Cabernet Franc had now entered its second decade, starting to express undercurrents of black pepper spice, liquorice and gentle floral aromatics, adding acidity and power without overdoing anything. It's a great wine, with the generosity and impact of a St-Emilion Premier Cru Classé, building in complexity slowly over the palate. This will deliver for many decades.

I love the precision and verve here, with berry, sliced mushroom and floral notes. Full-bodied, yet so tight and refined. Beautiful length and focus. Drink or hold.

65% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. A meaty, smoky nose with attractive, immediate complexity, while retaining primary plum fruit. Long, savoury palate with firm yet supple tannins, driven along by bright acidity. Great tension, drinking well now, and there’s plenty of maturity showing in the savoury/meaty spectrum. (RH)

A wine of total finesse, the 2014 La Gaffelière is gorgeous. Dark and pliant on the palate, with striking nuance, it presents a striking interplay of juicy Merlot fruit and lifted, Cabernet Franc–inflected aromatics. Silky tannins add to the wine’s exceptional feel and precision. The blend is 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc. The 2014 spent 25–30 days on the skins, while malolactic fermentation took place partly in tank and partly in barrique. Consulting oenologists Stéphane Derenoncourt and Simon Blanchard did a fabulous job with the 2014. In a word: superb!

Licorice, earth and dark, fresh plums; this wine is silky, limber and sweet, with freshness and finesse on the finish. 91-93 pts

The 2014 Château La Gaffelière is also a beautiful wine that’s more supple, elegant, and classic in style than the more concentrated 2015. Pure, seamless, and beautifully textured, this medium- to full-bodied 2014 offers impressive intensity and depth in its ripe blackcurrant, black cherry, spring flower, and mineral aromas and flavors. I love its complexity and its balanced, lengthy, classic style, and it should drink beautifully for 10–15+ years.

Dark garnet, fairly dense at the core, ruby rim. Compact bouquet, cooked red cherries, a spicy hint of tobacco. On the palate, firm and fleshy, yet with enough muscle to give it its typical, slightly masculine style. A food wine that requires patience.

Dark garnet, fairly dense in the middle, with a ruby rim. Compact bouquet showing cooked red cherries with a spicy tobacco note. On the palate, firm and fleshy, yet with enough muscle to give it its typically slightly masculine character. A food wine that requires patience.

Fresh, peppery bouquet with raspberry, cassis and fine oak. Medium-bodied, firm palate with good fruit, finely sandy tannins, muscular structure, moderate aromatics, and a firm finish. Still has room to improve. 16/20 2022 - 2034

The 2014 La Gaffeliere is medium to deep garnet-brick in color. Notions of sweaty leather and iodine give way to a core of plum preserves and dusty soil with a waft of iron ore. The medium-bodied palate delivers a good core of muscular black fruit, with a firm chewy texture and an earthy finish. Tasted blind with the Southwold Group in London in February 2024.

After ageing, the 2014 (80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc), moderately extracted yet fleshy, expresses all the slender elegance and assured poise brought by the clay soils of the hillside vineyard. This is the very essence of what is most sensual and distinctive in Saint-Émilion.

A wine with plenty of charm. The nose is very ripe, slightly jammy, with notes of crushed strawberry, blackberry, gentle spices, and acacia honey. The palate is broad, with a lovely sandalwood finish.

Garnet red with violet highlights. An elegant, expressive bouquet revealing notes of tea leaves, licorice, and dark fruit. A hint of pepper. A tasty, fruit-forward attack. On the palate, the wine shows roundness, structure, and a beautiful intensity of fruit. A fine structure that provides solid backbone and supports the fruit. The tannins are grainy and well integrated. They emerge fairly late and offer good potential. A wine that deserves cellaring.

The nose is concentrated. It reveals notes of dark fruits (blackcurrant…), flowers and more lightly cherry and white pepper. The palate is balanced, elegant and offers a certain fleshy character. On the palate you find notes of blackberry, crushed strawberry and more lightly raspberry combined with a touch of blueberry, sweet spices, tobacco leaf, toasted notes as well as a very fine hint of hazelnut and coffee on the finish.

Tasted during maturation and before fining, the wine already offered a delicious palate, with a supple and delicate body, and a noble, stimulating character. Lovely length.

This is the second wine of Grand Cru Classé Château la Gaffelière. It revels in ripe juicy Merlot while keeping a sense of style and elegance. Produced by the Malet-Roquefort family, owners since 1705, the wine has some firm tannins while never losing sight of the generous black fruits. Drink from 2022.

Captures finesse, concentration and density. Cherry pit, kirsch, nectarine, redcurrant, raspberry, tobacco, mandarin peel. Estate signature with mouthwatering oyster shell salinity and pumice stone texture, great stuff, with precise crafting to the tannic architecture. Stéphane Derenoncourt consultant, 60% new oak for ageing, Alexandre de Malet Roquefort owner.

The 2014 La Gaffeliere appears to have improved since its showing in barrel (I did hint at this at the time). The nose is perfumed and slightly floral, certainly well defined with neatly integrated oak, dark fruit emerging with aeration in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly edgy, chalky tannin on the entry, shrouded by plenty of dusky black fruit and a potent, graphite-tinged finish. This is one to watch.