Le Dome 2021 (750ML)

96 JA / 95 VM / 94-95 JS / 93-95 JD / 94 DE / 92-94 + WI / 92-94 WA

Restrained, savoury, deep and rich. Cocoa powder and liquorice bud character on the attack, this is extremely good quality and one of the wines of the vintage. Has walls and floors, is concentrated yet supple and needs ageing. Cabernet Franc is a grape that tends to shuts down in the early years and this will do so, so I suggest giving it a few years in bottle before opening, but there are ripe, seductive fruits here and it is punching above the vintage conditions. Michel Longo new vineyard manager (moving over from Pavie), Thomas Duclos consultant, Neil Whyte head winemaker. No Pontet Labrie, Le Carre nor Les Astéries in the range this year. First year in the new €14 million new winery, designed by Sir Norman Foster. No chaptilisation, very late harvest into 3rd week of October. - Jane Anson

The 2021 Le Dôme is a rich, heady wine. It is the 2021 that most clearly matches the Maltus house style in this freakish and highly challenging year. Black cherry, plum, cloves, new leather, licorice and dried herbs are all amplified in a dense, opulent Saint-Émilion that delivers the goods. Le Dôme deftly marries textural intensity with cool-climate and Cabernet Franc savoriness. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Polished and plush red with clove, dried lavender and dark-berry fruit. Full-bodied with firm, velvety and well-knit tannins. Lovely purity. Excellent length, too, with lingering spice notes. Lots to like. 80% cabernet franc and 20% merlot. - James Suckling

The 2021 Le Dôme is just about all Cabernet Franc, and it shines in the vintage, which certainly could favor this variety depending on the terroir. Gorgeous cassis fruits, notes of tobacco, dark chocolate, and chalky minerality, medium to full body, and beautiful tannins all define this beauty. It should need just a few years of bottle age to round into form. - Jeb Dunnuck

An expressive nose bursting with bramble fruits and perfumed nuances. Juicy and succulent but without overt or harsh acidity. This has depth and persistence, the creamy chalky tannins making their presence known and balancing the rich, concentrated fruits. The liveliness is there, with a brightness and vibrancy underpinning the wine, however it's the chewy tannins, the intense fruit and the liquorice are doing all the talking at the moment - the Cabernet Franc shining brightly in the glass. Feels extremely well worked with beautiful markers of the terroir and grapes. Excellent direction, this doesn’t stop once or drop in the midpalate. Classy stuff - and one of the wines from 2021 I'd like to own! - Georgina Hindle, Decanter

The 2021 Le Dome is a blend of 80% Cabernet Franc, picked 11 and 14 October, and 20% Merlot, picked 6, 7, and 11 October. Deep garnet-purple colored it is a little closed to start, soon unfurling to reveal scents of kirsch, black cherry compote, redcurrant jelly, and stewed plums, plus suggestions of pencil shavings, dried lavender, rosehip tea, and cinnamon toast. Medium-bodied, the palate sparkles with impressive energy, delivering mouth-filling red and black fruits with seamless freshness and very fine-grained tannins, leading to a long and minerally finish for this impressive wine. The pH is 3.71. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

Continuing fully 80% Cabernet Franc and vinified in Maltus's new winery, the 2021 Le Dome bursts with aromas of violets, blackberries, sweet soil tones and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with lively acids and powdery tannins, this perfumed, charming wine is unusually seamless and integrated at this early stage. Does this vintage mark a stylistic evolution for this cuvée? - William Kelley, Wine Advocate