Le Bon Pasteur 2021 (750ML)

94-95 JS / 94 AG / 93 DE / 92 VM / 90-92 JD / 90 JA

This is a very balanced and pretty wine with ultra-fine tannins that are integrated and persist through the wine. It’s medium-bodied with lovely length and depth. A focused and thought-provoking wine for the vintage. - James Suckling.

The 2021 Le Bon Pasteur is dark, rich and super-expressive. Large-scaled, ample and persistent, the 2021 is layered with red fruit, mocha, plum and spice. The resonant, textured finish and overall balance here are commendable. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Concentrated and intense on the palate in terms of depth of flavour - the blackcurrant, black cherry and damson fruit to the fore but set against firm, grippy and quite dense tannins that coat the whole mouth giving a liquorice, spice and slate tone to the palate. It's on the fuller end of the vintage and instead of delicacy you get a good dose of vibrant fruit power and tannic backbone. A bold and characterful wine, really quite abundant with all the individual elements on show. Still super-youthful, with swagger and pent up energy at this point. Lots of potential. Tasted twice. -Georgina Hindle, Decanter.

The 2021 Le Bon Pasteur has a very well-defined bouquet of clean and pure fruit, notably lively compared to others and far removed from the occasionally turbo-charged aromatics of previous decades. The palate has sufficient fruit on the entry—blackberry and raspberry. Quite structured at the moment, the tannins just clip the finish, but they certainly don't dry it out. It just requires three or four years in bottle for it to cohere. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

Tasted numerous times, the 2021 Château Le Bon Pasteur is a richer, more powerful wine in the vintage offering plenty of black fruits, graphite, and scorched earth nuances in a medium-bodied, nicely structured style. It has some background oak and will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age. The blend is 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, from a 6.6-hectare site planted on clay and gravelly soils. Fermentation is in a mix of tank and barrel, and the élevage is in 70% new barrels. -Jeb Dunnuck.

Visually the texture is attractive, supple, inviting. This is different to the character than you have found in Pagodes over recent years, the acidity is clearly more present through the tannins, which appear at the front of the mouth. But there are plenty of vivid blue fruits, together with bitter chocolate character, this is classically balanced, enjoyable, old school, successful in the vintage and suggests again that St Estèphe is a high spot in 2021, because so few 2nd wines have performed this well. 30% new oak, harvst September 23 to October 7. -Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux, Inside bordeaux.