2024, Château Branaire-Ducru, SAINT-JULIEN, 4ème Grand Cru ClasséLast year EP $71. 00 Bordeaux Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot. The 2024 Branaire Ducru offers up a pretty and precise bouquet of cassis, violets and pencil shavings. Medium bodied, supple and suave, with polished tannins and tangy acids, it's a fine boned, delicate wine from Branaire that was harvested between 20 September and 9 October. It's a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and

The mouthfeel is fresh and refined

The palate is creamy on entry

Medium-sweet

It sails out of the glass with fabulously flamboyant notes of fresh pineapple

graphite and dried herbs all run through this potent

flavours brim with minerality on the pure and youthfully austere finale

with a liberal sprinkling of black pepper on the finish

not quite as much depth as some but that actually fills a gap in this vintage

Beautifully lifted and precise

it's exquisitely elegant and harmonious

I think this is the one wine I'd buy from their portfolio if I could only buy one

The 2024 Ormes de Pez is a very pretty