Château Tertre Roteboeuf 2001

This open, flattering, and surprisingly loosely knit 2001 is seamless, seductive, and hedonistic. A dark plum/ruby color is followed by aromas of fudge, mocha, caramel, and sweet black cherries. Although it lacks some structure as well as depth, it is a delicious, nearly flamboyant St.-Emilion to enjoy over the next 7–10 years.

Very sweet and fully developed with a little more edge and chew than the 2007. A long drinking window, I would have thought. (JR)

Fresh red-ruby. Complex, expressive nose combining black raspberry, roasted currant, licorice, earth, game and white truffle. Sweetly oaky and lush on the palate, with mellow flavors of plum and game. An utterly singular wine with impressive opulence and palate coverage. Finishes with fine, dusty tannins. Mitjavile uses Radoux barrels to age his wine; the selection favors especially fine grain rather than any particular forest.

Jammy black raspberries, kirsch, cocoa, black cherry, fennel, smoke and stone create a complex perfume. Medium to full-bodied, with sensuous, round textures and a plush, ripe red-berry finish are what you’ll find in this mature St. Emilion. Tertre Roteboeuf is a wonderful expression of Bordeaux, but it’s not the longest-lived wine. I’d drink this over the next 5–8 years.

Dark garnet-purple, dense at the core. Powerful, gently jammy bouquet with cassis, damson plums, many Burgundian notes, light dates, violets. Elegant palate, supple aromas again reminiscent of prunes, smooth, rich tannins, fine sand-like supporting contours, elegant despite its tremendous volume, a roasted coffee note on the long finish.

François Mitjavile keeps fine-tuning his wine. Not a change of style, he claims, but evolutions in the service of quality. For the 2001 vintage, he immediately put as much particularly cloudy wine as possible, along with part of the press wine, into barriques. <div style="font-style:italic;color:#990033">It is important that the wine is clear in the end. However, I believe it would be wrong to force a very rapid clarification too early. Some estates even filter before filling the barriques. That is a mistake, because there are still many aromas and tannins in the lees that the wine can make good use of during élevage.</div> As we were about to leave the cellar, we discovered a kind of wine pump about two meters long: <div style="font-style:italic;color:#990033">This is also an innovation. It’s a sort of turbine that I place directly in the vats during fermentation. The wine is drawn up from below and sprayed over the cap from above, which perfectly moistens the fermenting grape skins and allows the aromatic compounds to integrate even more easily into the wine.</div> 02: Barrel sample (18/20): dark garnet-purple; dense at the core. Powerful, gently jammy bouquet; cassis and Damassine plums, many Burgundian notes, light dates and violets. Elegant palate with a soft, again prune-like aromatics, smooth, rich tannins with fine, sandy supporting contours; despite its massive body, the wine remains elegant, with a toasty coffee note on the long finish. 03: When I tasted the 2002, François was keen to show the 2001 again: gingerbread scent, plums, noble black tea, many fine herbal notes, dark malt and cooked plum purée. Absolutely soft and charming on the palate; despite the volume, the wine remains elegant and juicy; dreamy sweetness in the extract, which also shows chocolate and again Irish Moss. A great, Burgundian-style Saint-Émilion. 18/20 2006 – 2018

Slender and dense, with no heaviness or “warm” aromas, this is a wine of pure breed and real depth.