L'If

L'If, St Emilion, 2024

Name: L'If, St Emilion
Brand: L'If
Price: 405 GBP

92/100

Inside Bordeaux

91-93/100

The Wine Independent

90-92/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2011 2013 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

delivery

in bond

En primeur

2024
6x75cl
EP
£395.00
2024
3x1.5L
EP
£405.00

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Jacques Thienpont’s L'If 2024, born from late-harvested, clay-limestone soils and meticulous selections, offers an idiosyncratic yet ravishing profile. It bursts out of the glass with an abundance of vibrant red berries and a distinctive salty minerality, reflective of its terroir. Notes of wild herbs intertwine with sweet cherry liqueur and earthy minerals. Produced from 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc picked over three days. The selection was rigorous both in the vineyard and via density baths.

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

91-93/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

Deep garnet-purple colored. Needs a little shaking to wake up notes of black raspberries & kirsch, followed by hints of dusty soil, dried herbs, and crushed rocks. The light to medium-bodied palate is lively and fresh with zippy red berry flavors and fine-grained tannins, finishing with a fruity lift.

drinking window 2027 - 2037

date of review 05/2025

90-92/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2024 L'If was picked from October 4 to 6 for the Merlot, then October 8 for the Cabernet Franc. It aged for 12 to 16 months in 50% new oak. This has a fragrant bouquet, with mainly red fruit and slate-like scents. The palate is medium-bodied and balanced, with slightly chalky tannins and a little flesh on the mid-palate. Lightly spiced on the finish, this is a comparatively straightforward L'If compared to previous vintages that will serve as a fine earlier drinking Saint-Émilion.

drinking window 2028 - 2038

date of review 05/2025

92/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Love the aromatics here, and vibrant ruby colour, this is a real success and bright spot in the vintage, one to look out for, fragrant, tomato leaf, peony, lilac, raspberry fruits, lots of energy and delicate juice, not a powerhouse but skilful and early to medium drinking. 3.37 ph. Harvest 4 to 8 October, really held on to push for maturity. 30% new oak, even after sorting they are at 39hl/h yield here on these clay-limestone soils. Touch of chaptilsation and saignée, showing that even with waiting til October to harvest these things were needed.

drinking window 2029 - 2040

date of review 04/2025

product details

Specifications

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abv:

14.5%

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.