Château Belair Monange, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion, 2024
Chateau Belair Monange 2024 opens with a delightful bouquet of flowers, bergamot, and pure cassis, interwoven with mulberries, damsons, griotte, stones, cedar, white pepper and lilac. On the palate there is plenty of ravishing fruit and sweet exotic spice, complemented by gravelly cassis and graphite. The mid-palate is gorgeous, full of energy with pure berries and Asian spices, framed by filigree tannins laced with minerals and salts on the long, fragrant finish. 98% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc.
critic reviews
Deep garnet-purple colored. After a little shaking, the nose unfurls to reveal notes of black cherries and fresh raspberries, opening out to hints of lilacs, anise, and cedar chest. The medium-bodied palate is tightly wound with black and red berry layers, supported by firm, fine-grained tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and perfumed. A real head-turner.
The 2024 Bélair-Monange was picked between 23 and 28 September and aged in 50% new oak. This offers raspberry and wild strawberry scents on the nose that is defined but clearly not as complex as the bravura aromatics of the 2022. The palate is medium-bodied with pliant, juicy tannins and attractive blackberry and boysenberry scents with a little fig and allspice mixed in toward the harmonious finish. There's good concentration here. This does not possess the complexity of a great Belair-Monange, but it should give up to 20 years of drinking pleasure.
Limestone grip, terroir definitely playing its part, succulent, and well balanced, has precision, fragrant peony and lilac, density through the palate with a wave of juice on the finish. Think cherry pit, tobacco leaf, pumice stone. Currently the blend has no press wine, they will decide whether to add it over ageing, 50% new oak, harvest September 23 to 28, 3.8ph. No plans to have a 2nd wine (Annonce de Belair) in the vintage.
Notes of sweet cherries, berries, crushed mint and potpourri introduce the 2024 Belair Monange, a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and suave wine that's pure, precise and harmonious, with lively acids and creditable persistence on the finish.