Wine Words & Video Tape

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Château Le Boscq

025

Address: 33180 St Estèphe

Telephone: +33 (0)5 56 35 53 00

Château Le Boscq is a very promising St Estèphe cru bourgeois and part of the Dourthe group, now controlled by Alain Thiénot. The group also owns Haut-Médoc Château Belgrave. Le Boscq is located at the northern part of the appellation and makes excellent value modern-styled St Estèphe. The 2005 is quite delicious.

Vineyard/Terroir: 18 hectares planted with 51% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Petit Verdot.

Winemaking/Elévage: Temperature controlled fermentation in stainless steel followed by ageing in oak for 18 months with 50% new oak

  • 2015 Deep and dark looking; good coffee; some fruitcake spice; soft and easy palate; lacks a bit of depth but supple with no hard edges. Drink 2019-2025. Tasted Cru Bourgeois 7/4/16. 85-87+
  • 2014 Deep and saturated looking; intense and inky aromatics; tight but layered; creamy blackcurrant notes; plums; spices; nicely handled oak; soft tannins; good blackcurrant and briary fruit. Excellent effort. Drink 2020-2030. Tasted at Cru Bourgeois event at d’Arsac, 2 April, 2015. 89-91+
  • 2013 Deep and saturated look; black; vegetal notes; feels a bit green; inky palate; quite soft but rather vegetal streak for me. A disappointment. Bad sample? Drink 2016-2022. Cru Bourgeois tasting at Chateau d’Arsac. 80-83?
  • 2011 Deep colour; vibrant edge; warm sexy worked nose; new wood, some sap; perfume and flower; quite hard and angular on the palate; chew and density but acid and tannin give the wine a puckering finish. May round out but currently hard, characters accentuated by being tasted cold. Tasted at Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc  3/4/12 83-85? Drink 2018-2012
  • 2010 Deep, quite arterial; tight and quite layered on the nose but with noticeable oak influence; fleshy and extracted palate, oak too and feels a little disjointed at present. Meaty though and chew though falls away a tad at the back. Not bad 85-87+/100 l’Alliance des Crus Bourgeois 7th April 2011 Drink 2015-2025
  • 2006 Good depth, mid red; some violets, freshness, some attractive plummy qualities also some oak resin but starting to integrate. Beneath some cake and mineral notes – and attractive nose. Some depth to the palate but also a tautness that emerges and palate does fall away and tannins at the end. Feels it may have been over-extracted a little relative to the fruit? 85?/100 MW Institute Nov ‘10 Drink now – 2020
  • 2005 Mid red; depth; dark at core; glossy; violets, blackcurrants and cassis but fine and elegant; piercing and precise [nicely oaked accent]; feels like a good modern wine; later earthy and tobacco note. Palate full with fruit, acid, oak and tannin. Lacks some sophistication but nice and intense. Will knit together well with a few years. Delicious. 88+/100 Sept ‘09 Drink now – 2020
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