L'If

L'If, St Emilion, 2022

Name: L'If, St Emilion
Brand: L'If
Price: 798 GBP

93/100

Inside Bordeaux

93-95/100

The Wine Independent

93-95/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

delivery

in bond

En primeur

2022
6x75cl
EP
£798.00
2022
3x1.5L
EP
£808.00
2022
1x3L
EP
£577.00

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

It is ten years since Jacques started this project and in that time half of the 8 hectares have been replanted. Today, some of the fruit from these new plots is gradually entering the blend of L'If, young vines that Jacques says are looking

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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

93-95/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2022 L'If, a blend of 20% Cabernet Franc from fourth-leaf vines and 80% Merlot, was picked on 14 and 26 September at 35hL/ha. The limestone soils percolate through nicely on the nose with mineral-rich blackberry and bilberry fruit, quite estuarine (even if it doesn't border the Gironde!) The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy black fruit and blueberry notes. It's finely structured with a touch of licorice popping up on the finish, overtly spicy on the aftertaste. This is a very well-crafted Saint-Émilion from Jacques Thienpont and team - no wonder it is gaining a loyal following like Le Pin.

drinking window 2030 - 2055

date of review 05/2023

93-95/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

The 2022 L'If, 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc, is deep garnet-purple in color. It swans out of the glass with gregarious notions of juicy raspberries, plum preserves, and fresh blackberries, followed by hints of roses, star anise, and smoked meats. The medium to full-bodied palate is charged with energy, delivering a firm fine-grained backbone of tannins and lovely tension, finishing long and fragrant. pH 3.52.

drinking window 2028 - 2055

date of review 05/2023

93/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Deep plum colour with violet reflections, and this is full of limestone intensity and grip, with fragrant floral aromatics. Bitter edge of black chocolate, fennel and aniseed, cassis fruits, real purity of character. Cyril Thienpont winemaker. Owned by the Thienponts since 2010. Harvest September 14 to 26. 50% new oak. 35hl/h yield. 3.52ph. New barrel cellar from 2023 vintage, 4,000l Stockinger barrels. 50% new oak.

drinking window 2028 - 2040

date of review 05/2023

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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.