Alcee 2022 (750ML)

93-94 JD / 92-93 JS / 91-93 WI / 91 JA

Tasting like a Grand Cru Classé from Saint-Emilion, the 2022 Château Alcée hails from the cooler Castillon region on the Right Bank and is 100% Merlot aged in one-third new French oak. This beauty offers a vivid purple hue as well as a beautiful perfume of black raspberries, cassis, graphite, and toasted spices. With a real sense of minerality, medium to full body, ripe tannins, and a great finish, it's one of those wines that tastes like it costs three times the price.-Jeb Dunnuck

Dark berries with blackberry and brambleberry character, as well as dusty tannins. Crunchy. Medium body. Fine tannins. Salty. Pure merlot. - James Suckling

The 2022 Alcee, 100% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. After some coaxing, fragrant notes of baked black plums, Morello cherries, and fertile loam emerge, with touches of lavender and black pepper. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers mouth-coating black fruits with loads of savory sparks and velvety tannins, finishing with a refreshing lift. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent

The tannins here are very present from the first moment, you feel their power but they are tempered by a juicy, vertical feel through the palate, and a ton of concentrated black cherry and damson fruit. 25% new oak for ageing alongside larger 400l oak casks. Tasted twice, good quality and one to look out for. No Cabernet Franc in the blend this year becuse they are young vines and they suffered in the drought, with an overall yield of just 22hl/h yield. 3ha estate owned by Nicolas Thienpont since 2011, Nicolas and Cyrile Thienpont winemakers, Julien Lavenu consultant. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux