2015 Château Talbot, St Julien, Bordeaux

2015 Château Talbot, St Julien, Bordeaux

Product: 20158011853
Prices start from £76.00 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2015 Château Talbot, St Julien, Bordeaux

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Description

66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. 50% new oak for ageing, Jean-Pierre Marty, director.

High-toned aromatics, with a flash of heat, take their time to find their feet on the opening, but the intense clove spice adds focus. Things soften through the mid-palate to show raspberry and black cherry fruits, grilled herbs, and tobacco leaf. Surprisingly, there were fresh acidities for what is known as a hot vintage, but things were a little tougher in the northern Médoc than elsewhere.

Drink 2025 - 2040

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (December 2023)

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Critics reviews

Jane Anson90/100

66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. 50% new oak for ageing, Jean-Pierre Marty, director.

High-toned aromatics, with a flash of heat, take their time to find their feet on the opening, but the intense clove spice adds focus. Things soften through the mid-palate to show raspberry and black cherry fruits, grilled herbs, and tobacco leaf. Surprisingly, there were fresh acidities for what is known as a hot vintage, but things were a little tougher in the northern Médoc than elsewhere.

Drink 2025 - 2040

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (December 2023)

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Neal Martin, Vinous93/100

Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting.

The 2015 Talbot shows much better now than just a year ago. Here it has a much more intense bouquet than Gruaud Larose and Lagrange. Upfront blackberry and bilberry scents, cedar and subtle mint aromas lend complexity with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin on the entry, a fine bead of acidity with layers of graphite-infused black fruit. I love the precision on the finish here and the persistence is superb. Impressive.

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (July 2019)

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Antonio Galloni, Vinous92+/100

The 2015 Talbot is endowed with serious power and density, much of which it appears to have acquired during ageing. Dark plum, lavender, new leather, spice and grilled herbs run through this decidedly potent Saint-Julien. Readers will have to give the 2015 at least a few years to shed some of its formidable tannins. In two tastings, Talbot showed more nuance, complexity and overall pedigree than it did as a barrel sample.

Drink 2022 - 2030

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2018)

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Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20

Tasted blind

Blackish crimson. Leafily aromatic. Light tannins. It is very easy and charming but not one of the most ambitious, though there are ripe tannins at the very end. 

Drink 2023 - 2038

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2019)

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James Suckling94/100

A big, rich wine for St. Julien with plenty of power and concentration, which enables it to carry plenty of spicy and toasty oak. The tannins need some time to soften, but the elegant finish says that from 2020 this should really impress.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2018)

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Decanter91/100

Classic, robust, meaty Talbot fruit with slightly gamey spice but more polish and lift in 2015. It's always open in style but will last well.

Drink 2021 - 2033

Decanter.com

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Jeb Dunnuck91/100

Notes of black cherries, underbrush, tobacco, and smoked herbs emerge from the 2015 Château Talbot, an old-school, classic, concentrated 2015 that does everything right. With medium-bodied richness, good concentration, and solid overall balance, it’s already approachable, as are most in the vintage, yet will benefit from short-term cellaring and deep for 10-15 years.

Drink 2018 - 2033

Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (November 2017)

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About this WINE

Chateau Talbot

Chateau Talbot

Château Talbot is one of the best-known Bordeaux wine estates to a UK audience, not surprisingly because it takes its name from John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who in 1453 suffered the ignominy of losing the  battle, and with it his life, which allowed Bordeaux and its vineyards to slip back into French control after belonging to the British Crown for over 340 years.

In the last century it has been owned by the Cordier family, and the red wine of the estate has long enjoyed a reputation for solid dependability. It is one of the largest estates in the Médoc and its 102 hectare single vineyard is situated inland from the Gironde River and west of the hamlet of St-Julien-Beychevelle.

Georges Cordier, who owned the property in the mid-20th century, was a great lover of white wine, and, determined to produce his own, took the highly unusual step of planting 5 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon in his vineyard, producing his first crop of white wine in 1945 (Le Caillou Blanc de Ch Talbot). The aim is to make wine in a Burgundian style, aged in oak barrels, with the 80% Sauvignon Blanc imparting vivacity and acidity, while the 20% Semillon imbues the wine with weight, backbone and ageing potential.

Red wine from Talbot is typically a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (66%), Merlot (26%), Cabernet Franc (3%), and Petit Verdot (5%) - the vinification includes 18 months maturation in small oak barriques (50% new).

Talbot has a reputation for consistency and is one of the most carefully made and reliable of the St-Julien Cru Classé clarets. The best examples are richly aromatic with a bouquet of cedarwood and vanilla scented cassis fruits and with a palate packed with well-delineated, ripe, black fruits and finely integrated tannins. It is classified as a 4ème Cru Classé.
 

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St Julien

St Julien

St Julien is the smallest of the "Big Four" Médoc communes. Although, without any First Growths, St Julien is recognised to be the most consistent of the main communes, with several châteaux turning out impressive wines year after year. 

St Julien itself is much more of a village than Pauillac and almost all of the notable properties lie to its south. Its most northerly château is Ch. Léoville Las Cases (whose vineyards actually adjoin those of Latour in Pauillac) but,  further south, suitable vineyard land gives way to arable farming and livestock until the Margaux appellation is reached.  

The soil is gravelly and finer than that of Pauillac, and without the iron content which gives Pauillac its stature. The homogeneous soils in the vineyards (which extend over a relatively small area of just over 700 hectares) give the commune a unified character.

The wines can be assessed as much by texture as flavour, and there is a sleek, wholesome character to the best. Elegance, harmony and perfect balance and weight, with hints of cassis and cedar, are what epitomise classic St Julien wines. At their very best they combine Margaux’s elegance and refinement with Pauillac’s power and substance.

Ch. Léoville Las Cases produces arguably the most sought-after St Julien, and in any reassessment of the 1855 Classification it would almost certainly warrant being elevated to First Growth status.

Recommended Châteaux: Ch. Léoville Las CasesCh.Léoville Barton, Ch Léoville Poyferré, Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou, Ch Langoa Barton, Ch Gruaud Larose, Ch. Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Beychevelle

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.