Château La Violette

Château La Violette, Pomerol, 2018

Name: Château La Violette, Pomerol
Brand: Château La Violette
Price: 789.55 GBP

93+/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

91/100

The Wine Independent

94+/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2014 2018 2019 2022

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in bond

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Last Few
2018
3x75cl
DP
£789.55

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

As with sister property, Le Gay, this is the fifth vintage of Violette to be micro-vinified in their very impressive new cellar. Produced from a tiny 1.6 hectare plot of Merlot close to VCC and Le Pin, this 100% Merlot cuvee and will be aged for 15 months in 100% new Saury and Ecrin barrels. This boutique cuvee has received some rave reviews. It's fair to say that we can't see what the fuss is all about, although recent Southwold showings have been more impressive. Very glossy with really polished Merlot fruit: plum liqueur, damsons, creamy red fruit and a hint of florality. This is perhaps a little more vibrant than Le Gay and has a mouth-watering vibrant, saline finish.

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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

91/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

La Violette 2018 has a deep garnet purple color. It offers faint leathery/gamey/earthy wafts to start, leading to warm plums and blackberry preserves at the core, with hints of crushed rocks and iron ore. Full-bodied, the palate is laden with densely packed with dried berries and earthy flavors, supported by chewy tannins, finishing a touch firm.

drinking window 2026 - 2040

date of review 02/2023

93+/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2018 La Violette slowly emerges from the glass with wafts of dried flowers, Chinese five spice and cedar chest before erupting into vivacious notes of plum preserves, baked blackberries and black cherry compote, plus hints of licorice and iodine. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers mouth-coating black fruit preserves with a spicy undercurrent and grainy tannins, finishing with the freshness in the background and a dogged suggestion of unmarried oak. In something of an ugly-duckling stage, there's enough going on here to warrant forgetting it in the cellar for 5-7 years, after which it should all come together beautifully.

drinking window 2027 - 2042

date of review 04/2021

94+/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2018 La Violette is a Pomerol that felt tight when I tasted it from barrel, and now in bottle, there is still something uncharacteristically reserved. However, that does not disguise the wonderful raspberry and wild strawberry fruit that gradually unfolds. Lo and behold, after 12 hours, this is singing. The palate is very well balanced with slightly tarry black fruit and a fine bead of acidity. Quite taut and linear but with good weight and palpable <em>mineralité</em> on the finish. La Violette has gained more intellect and complexity in recent vintages and though I do not believe this is the greatest ever produced, it is a superb wine for the vintage that may merit a higher score with bottle age.

drinking window 2023 - 2045

date of review 03/2021

product details

Specifications

Country:

Region:

Appellation:

Producer:

style:

Grape Variety:

Merlot Cabernet Franc

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.