Saint Estèphe Red Bordeaux Blend

The ruby/purple '11 Château Lilian Ladouys Red Bordeaux St.-Estèphe perfumes the nose with red licorice, graphite, black cherry and peppery oak scents. Medium-bodied and a bit austere on the tongue. Dusty tannins on the mineral-laced finish. A good food wine.

Took a while to open up, but when it does, wow!

For the price, a gripping complex and well-balanced wine

This was stiff enough to warrant using the decanter! Admittedly it is very young, but in an awful vintage, the early bird often gets the purple worm. Really a lovely animal. A funk blew off initially, revealing a rich, ripe perfume of cran-blackberry, red currant and violets. The pronounced fruit tannins were thick as a cloud of mayflies, but softened rapidly, to dazzle us with a fulgent array of bright crystalline plum and cinnamon, raspy vanilla and berry assortment, delicious earthy mushrooms and clean clay undulating lithely beneath a river of the aforementioned. Pretty, bright, no-nonsense, and elegantly muscled. Very sexy stuff.

Starts off with some dark fruit, lavender, and minerality with tons of oak on the nose.. The wood blows off after a couple hours and turns into blackberry jam, pepper, and sweet licorice.. Thankfully the lavender stays in place. On the palate, it is very even-keeled and new world-esque with luscious dark fruit, minerality, and moderate tannins. I can see why spectator liked it, it doesn't need as much time as the '10.

Pretty fantastic. Graphite, pencil shavings, dark fruit but low alc., mineral, floral, subtle, killer!

Very solid Bordeaux. Big qpr. Nice to find with a little age.

Complex, aromatic, full-bodied, and tannic. Black fruit, tobacco, earthy spice.

Nice food wine. Tobacco and black cherry notes when it opened. Classic finish. Went well with the Christmas herbed crusted prime rib.

Needs more time. Will wait another year before trying another bottle. Very tannic