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Tasting Notes
This is another fabulous wine from David Suire at Laroque – whose meticulous attention to detail in the vineyard allowed him to succeed in the challenging vintage. The nose is bright and fresh, with red-berry fruit, and an abundance of 2023’s typically floral notes. Firm, vertical tannins quickly dissipate into a lifted, red-fruited mid-palate. With 3.42pH and 14.5% alcohol (which is effortlessly integrated), there’s an overall wonderful sense of tension to this wine. The finish is long and mouth-watering, full of earthy minerality, with a saline, moreish finish. Aged in 50% new oak. Blend: 99% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc
Critic Scores
Average Score
James Suckling
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
One for the classic Saint-Emilion limestone lovers out there, the 2023 Château Laroque is almost all Merlot (there's a splash of Cabernet Franc), and it has a pure, medium-bodied, incredibly elegant profile carrying vibrant raspberry and cassis-driven fruit, some violet and floral notes, remarkable freshness and vibrancy, fine tannins, and outstanding length. It's not massive, but it’s flawlessly balanced and just a beautiful wine in the vintage that readers will love to have in the cellars.
Deeply colored, the wine opens with a strong, marine influence before you get to the flowers, licorice, red berries, and spice. The palate displays a medium-bodied, energetic core of spicy, fresh, sweet, ripe, salty, red fruits. Elegant in nature, there is a vibrant, almost, racy character to the fruits. This is a refined, charmer that leaves you with sweetness, spice, and ample purity in the salt-edged, red fruits that remain with you, from start to finish. The wine was made with 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, 14.15% ABV.
The 2023 Laroque is deep garnet-purple in color. It is a touch closed to start off, with reluctant scents of cedar and tar eventually opening out to a core of ripe black and red plums, Bing cherries, and fragrant earth plus a waft of violets. The medium-bodied palate delivers great tension and beautifully ripe, rounded tannins to support the red and black berry flavors, finishing on a floral note. The blend is 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc.
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About the producer
Ch. Laroque is a Saint-Emilion fine wine estate which takes its name from the plateau of limestone rock on which it sits.