Château Les Ormes de Pez, St Estèphe, 2021
This Jean Michel Cazes owned St Estephe Chateau is on fine form, producing wines in a similar vein to its big brother, Lynch Bages. The 2021 is dialled back, but there's still admirable fruit and a nice easy flow. Lots of velvety purple fruit, notes of hedgerow berries, blueberries and strawberries, toast and tobacco. Plenty of grip and energy and good delivery of flavour. Much to enjoy here. As ever, this St Estephe will be a top value buy.
critic reviews
A blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Ormes de Pez has a deep garnet-purple color. It features notes of crushed blackberries and raspberries, giving way to hints of dusty soil, cardamom, and underbrush. Light-bodied, delicately styled and refreshing, the palate features soft tannins and a peppery lift on the finish.
Warm and welcoming ruby plum in colour. Opens with undergrowth and smoked earth, a little rustic as it was En Primeur, but easily one of the most charming and good value wines of the vintage, with brambled fruits and fresh acidities that are mouthwatering rather than sharp. 45% new oak.
The 2021 Ormes de Pez is quite striking on the nose, brinier than I recall from barrel, with lifted blackberry and boysenberry fruit and a touch of balsamic. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, again, very saline in the mouth and slightly granular in texture, with black olive tapenade toward the finish. Quite feisty at the moment, give this three or four years in bottle.
The 2021 Ormes de Pez delivers notes of cassis, pencil shavings and toasty oak, followed by a medium-bodied, suave and polished palate with a nicely concentrated core of fruit framed by tangy acids and sweet, powdery tannins.