Château Le Sartre – 2010 – Pessac Léognan

Quite dense colour, dense ruby-red. Nothing blue-purple so a certain evolution. The nose is also starting to show a hint of development. There is still a great deal of fruit, mostly black fruit such as cassis, with plum and blackberry. There is a slight hint of exotic spiciness like mint, ripe herbs, sage and bay leaf. Gentle hint of oak. Good grip on the palate. Really high level of concentration here. Plenty of fruitiness. Quite high extract. Still with a presence of tannin. So a gentle hint, I didn’t really pick up a lot of oak on the nose. There is a bit more of that toastiness on the palate. Really vigorous and long finish, still appearing dense and powerful. I think this is about approachable today. There is still power as I said, but it is starting to lose a bit of that youthful edge. Sure, after a while in the decanter, it offers a lot of pleasure. So a powerful wine with juicy dark fruit, good levels of freshness. It should easily have ten plus years in terms of potential.

Tasted by the Best Sommelier of the World, Andreas Larsson.