critic reviews
The 2015 Valandraud has long been one of my favourite vintages of Jean-Luc Thunévin, and six years on from my previous encounter, it remains a gorgeous wine. It is packed with black cherry and crushed strawberry fruit, still youthful, especially here, juxtaposed against its peers. Quite intense, but there is pedigree. The palate is medium-bodied with a sweet, almost Napa-like entry that admittedly denudes it of some typicité—certainly not a "classic" style of Saint-Émilion. But the oak is seamlessly subsumed and there is a precision on the finish that cannot be denied. Superb. Just starting to drink now, but it will continue to deliver for many years.
Dive in to this lovely Valandraud, textured and rippled with fleshy red fruits and limestone fingerprints, austere in all the right places, opulent where you want it to be. Great stuff, leans into the vintage and shows its joy. Jean-Luc Thunevin owner, 100% new oak for ageing.