Wine Advisor
Valandraud 1998
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Proprietor Jean-Luc Thunevin deserves credit for serving as an inspiration for other St.-Emilion producers. The success he has enjoyed with Valandraud has undoubtedly fueled many of the qualitative efforts going on elsewhere. The opaque ruby/purple-colored 1998 Valandraud offers a gorgeous nose of black cherries, earth, and vanillin. It is supple, velvety-textured, and voluptuous, with high, but sweet tannin. As the 1998 sits in the mouth, flavors of dried herbs, new saddle leather, and meat emerge. This rich, beautifully-textured, long, concentrated wine is a top-notch effort. Anticipated maturity: 2001-2015.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Nine months of cask aging has given Valandraud more concentration, sweeter aromatics, and better integrated tannin. One of the finest wines Jean-Luc Thunevin has yet made, this black/purple-colored effort offers striking notes of Asian spice, black fruits, cedar, toast, roasted coffee, chocolate, and meat. Dense, rich, and ripe, with low acidity, a succulent mid-palate, and a gorgeously proportioned, full-bodied, pure finish, it is a wine of great power, richness, and symmetry. Consume it over the next 20-22 years.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at the Valandraud vertical at the property, the 1998 Valandraud has a sweet ripe bouquet with scents of dark berries, salted licorices, tobacco and cedar that is very intense and powerful. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. Bizarrely, it almost seems Left Bank in style with cedar and tobacco notes infusing the black fruit, the mintiness suggesting a Pauillac! I love the drive here, the focus and the slight aloofness, a wine that demands respect and is worthy of it. What a great 1998: elegant yet intense, classy yet approachable. I envisage this offering another 10-15 years of drinking pleasure. Tasted December 2016.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
A classic St.-Emilion, the 1998 exhibits a dark plum/purple color as well as an elegant nose of mocha, coffee, cherries, blackberries, and chocolate. It has turned out to be more finesse-styled and less exotic than past vintages. This medium to full-bodied, beautifully concentrated wine reveals chocolate overtones in the aromas and flavors. With exceptional purity, balance, and length, it should turn out to be one of the most elegant Valandrauds yet produced. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2020. Proprietor Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife, Murielle, are the de facto leaders of the St.-Emilion vin de garage effort. If that is not unsettling enough to the Medoc aristocracy, they are now starting up garage operations in Margaux and St.-Estephe.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Super wine here. Aromas of spicy chocolate, almost jalapeño, then dark fruits. It’s full-bodied with silky tannins and a lovely finish. Balanced and refined. Just starting to come around. What depth of fruit. This has a long life ahead of it, but so good to drink now.
Reviewed by: James Suckling
Super wine here. Aromas of spicy chocolate, almost jalapeño, then dark fruits. It’s full-bodied with silky tannins and a lovely finish. Balanced and refined. Just starting to come around. What depth of fruit. This has a long life ahead of it, but so good to drink now.
About the Producer
Chateau Valandraud is located in the Saint-Emilion appellation on the right bank of Bordeaux, France. It is a famous pioneer winery of Garage Wine in Bordeaux. One of the most expensive wines in the Loh region. The achievements of Château Valenzo are inseparable from a wine-passionate couple, Jean-Luc Thunevin and Murielle Andraud. This well-known couple in the wine world started out selling wine in the Saint-Emilion region. After their business success, they decided to open up a vineyard of their own and make their own wine. So, in 1989, the couple bought a 0.6-hectare vineyard near Chateau Pavie Macquin and Chateau La Clotte in Saint-Emilion. The winery is named after the place name Vallon de Fongaban and the family name of the hostess Andro. In this way, Valanzo Winery was born. After that, Jean-Luc Touven and Muriel Andrew successively bought several other small vineyards. Today, the winery has 8.88 hectares of vineyards. In 1991, Château Valenzo released its first vintage. And just five years later, the 1995 Château Valandraud (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe, France) was awarded 95 points by Robert Parker, the "Wine Emperor". Since then, its value has soared, becoming one of the most expensive wines in Saint-Emilion. In 2012, Valenzo Winery was ranked Saint-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classe B in the latest Saint-Emilion classification results with its outstanding performance. The winery also joined the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux in 2017. Jean-Luc Tournevin was called "Bordeaux's Black Sheep" by Robert Parker, also known as "Saint-Emilion's Bad Boy". However, these seemingly derogatory titles are an affirmation of his pioneering innovation in winemaking. He created a new style of red Bordeaux wine by further compressing the grape yield, delaying the harvest time, increasing the extraction time and using new oak barrels for long aging. And it is this kind of Varanzo that makes the famous wine critic Michel Bettane give the highest evaluation of "love at first sight". The vineyards of Valenzo Winery have a superior terroir. The soil types in the garden are mainly limestone and clay. The red grape planting includes 65% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec and 1% Carmenere, white grapes are mainly Sauvignon Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Three varieties. To this day, the winery has always adhered to the high requirements for the quality of grapes, and manually screened the wine grapes with extremely strict standards. In terms of brewing, the winery has achieved a combination of tradition and modern technology. Grapes are harvested by hand when they reach their peak ripeness and undergo a first screening in the vineyard, followed by an extremely rigorous secondary screening in the winemaking workshop. The selected grapes undergo alcoholic fermentation in different vessels (stainless steel tanks, concrete tanks and oak barrels), followed by a three-week maceration, during which the skins are manually pressed to fully extract the color, tannins and flavor substances. The wine is then placed in oak barrels for Malolactic Fermentation. Next, the wine will be matured for 18-30 months in 100% new French oak barrels. The winery spends huge sums of money to replace expensive new oak barrels every year. Finally, the wine is bottled without filtration and clarification. Valenzo Winery's authentic wine-Valanzo Winery's red wine is gorgeous in style, rich in aroma, silky tannins, fruity and fresh, rich and complex on the palate, rich in black berries and spices in oak barrels The taste adds a charming roasted aroma and has excellent ageing potential. In addition, the winery also produces a second-brand wine - Virginie de Valandraud, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, France, and a third-brand wine - Château Valenzo No. 3 Dry red wines (3 de Valandraud, Saint-Emilion, France) and 2 very good white wines.
1995(4)1997(1)
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