Château La Violette

Château La Violette, Pomerol, 2014

Name: Château La Violette, Pomerol
Brand: Château La Violette
Price: 789.53 GBP

91/100

Inside Bordeaux

83/100

The Wine Independent

92/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

delivery

in bond

Broking

2014
6x75cl
DP
£789.53

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Henri Parent explained that 2014 was the first vintage to be micro-vinified in their very impressive new cellar. Wine-maker, Marcello Pelleriti now has 470 barrels instead of the 12 large vats he used to work with. This enables much more precise vinifications. Produced from a tiny 1.6 hectare plot of Merlot close to VCC and le Pin. The wine will be aged for 15 months in 100% new Saury barrels. Violette is not what some might assume. Yes it is the darling of Robert Parker and it holds a micro cuvee status, but this is far from garagiste - there is something very real and mineral here, a serious, saline, understated wine that will reward those with patience. Initially starry and polished with some heady perfumed notes of cedar intertwined with decadent Merlot fruits. This is less open than Le Gay and more mineral with a real sense of tension. We were impressed by the clarity and intensity here and the discrete length of flavour. This could be very impressive.

delivery information

GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost 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

92/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2014 La Violette has a typical nose for this estate, very polished with almost identical scents to four years ago: blackberry and raspberry, touches of bay and cloves. It doesn't appear to have matured greatly in the interim. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, harmonious and refined. La Violette is not often equated with elegance, but this does have precisely that on the finish, even if it doesn't fully possess the complexity I originally envisaged. Hence, I am inclined to shorten my drinking window here, yet it remains a delicious Pomerol to enjoy over the next 20 years. A second bottle tasting blind was much more Bretty and was marked down, hence the question mark against my score.

drinking window 2024 - 2044

date of review 03/2024

83/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

Medium to deep garnet-brick in color, the 2014 La Violette opens with iodine and leathery scents leading to a vague core of dried cherries and prunes plus a hint of fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate is chewy and rustic with a lifted finish.

drinking window 2024 - 2030

date of review 03/2024

91/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Floral iris and peony notes on the first nose, quickly opening to a focus on spice, both white and black pepper, along with salted cracker, tobacco, truffle, saffran. At a good moment to drink, with a fresh acidity on the finish that suggests this may evolve fairly quickly from this point. 65% new oak. Pere Verge owner.

drinking window 2024 - 2036

date of review 02/2024

product details

Specifications

Country:

Region:

Appellation:

Producer:

style:

Grape Variety:

Merlot Cabernet Franc

abv:

13.5%

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.