Armailhac 2009

60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Picked 23 Sep - 6 Oct. Very dark crimson. Inky and fragrant with just a hint of farmyard. Black cherries for the first time on the left bank! Less obviously ripe and supple than many 2009s on the nose but then on the palate there's a sweet start and then a pretty chewy, slightly sinewy finish. Sweet and polished - not too much soul but an awful lot of effective artifice! Reasonably complete. More traditional tannin management than some. Fairly chunky. Date tasted 1st April 2010. Drink 2017-2030.

There is an appealing red fruited freshness on the nose allowing the fruit fragrances to show themselves to advantage. The palate has the richness of ripe fruit with lots of fleshy cassis enriched by black cherry. Some oak is in evidence, the spicy vanilla adding rather than detracting. Drink 2020-2040.

Dense purple red, lovely expression of ripe blackcurrant fruit, polished, classy, seductive and impressive, beautiful texture and length, totally charming Pauilac that will age well. Drink 2014-25.

Plenty of ripe cassis and chocolate with a hint of smoke on the nose lead you into a ripe and velvety Pauillac that now gives a lot of pleasure thanks to the excellent harmony and good length. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)

This may be the finest d'Armailhac I have ever tasted. Made in a textured, full-bodied, sumptuous style, it is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and the balance primarily Cabernet Franc with a tiny dosage of Petit Verdot. It exhibits a deep ruby/purple hue along with floral, red and black currant, cedar, and spice characteristics. Deep, medium to full-bodied, and impressively pure as well as long, it should drink well for 25 years. (Tasted three times.) Drink 2010-2035. Robert Parker added an asterisk to this wine score to signify that it is a wine he considers has the finest potential of all the offerings he has ever tasted from this estate in nearly 32 years of barrel tasting samples in Bordeaux.

Tasted at Château Mouton-Rothschild. The d'Armailhac 2009 has a gorgeous, voluptuous bouquet with black cherries, cassis and a touch of oyster shell. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded, firm tannins, gentle but insistent grip with touches of graphite and sous-bois towards the composed, minerally finish. There is a little more linearity compared to previous vintages - but very stylish and a little more "classic" in style. Tasted November 2011.

Tasted at Château Mouton-Rothschild and at a negociant. A blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. This has a fragrant, perfumed nose with a Margaux-like personality. Taut blackberry and bilberry fruit, good definition, coiled up aromatics, becoming stonier with aeration, good minerality coming through, perhaps stricter than recent vintages of d'Armailhac. The palate has a very smooth entry, supple tannins, citric acidity, very pure and generous, lovely sense of refinement towards the tannic, blackberry, stony finish. Perhaps a little more conservative at this stage, the oak is bound to buff it up by time of bottling. Tasted March 2010.