chateau belair 1er grand cru classe st emilion

Château Belair

Château Belair, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion, 2005

Name: Château Belair, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion
Brand: Château Belair
Price: 785.47 GBP

87/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

90/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2005

delivery

in bond

Broking

2005
12x75cl
DP
£785.47

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

We have followed this property for some years and always suspected that the delicacy of its wines could be bolstered without losing focus or character, and with the 2005 we have exactly that. It is a hugely appealing wine with real backbone, still with delicate hues of rose petals and wafting smoke on the nose but with a substantial, developed palate that includes flavours of creamy blackberry and cherry, and chewy tobacco leaf. Very good balance, and a fine finish. The best yet.

delivery information

GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of utmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

90/100

Stephen Tanzer,

Vinous

Good ruby-red. Fresh, sexy nose features currant, plum and smoked meat. Large-scaled and sweet, even voluptuous for this chateau. Not the last word in personality yet, but this is silky and mouthfilling, and the serious tannins are nicely ripe. (An earlier sample showed blueberry, blackberry and menthol on the nose and palate and came across a bit more medicinal and less fleshy. As a result, the tannins seemed a tad dry. I scored this bottle 88 points.) Belair seems greatly improved beginning with this vintage.

date of review 05/2008

87/100

Robert Parker,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Now that Christian Moueix has bought in to this estate and begun to harvest ripe rather than underripe fruit, as well as institute a selection process, which never before existed, quality has risen. The 2005 may be the finest Belair I have ever tasted (which includes at least 35 vintages). By no means inspiring, especially in the context of the vintage, it is a deep ruby-hued, medium-bodied 2005 offering an attractive, sweet bouquet of black cherry liqueur, earth, and vanilla. It is made in a medium-bodied style that is not dissimilar from Moueixs nearby premier grand cru classe estate, Magdelaine. There is more minerality here, but this finesse-styled St.-Emilion should be at its best between 2013-2023.

drinking window 2013 - 2023

date of review 04/2008

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abv:

13%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.