Showing even better today than at a 10-year retrospective in 2018, the 2008 Château Barde-Haut is a full-bodied, ripe, beautifully textured 2008 offering loads of chocolatey dark fruits, lead pencil shavings, tobacco, and obvious minerality in both its aromas and flavors. Impeccably balanced, with fine tannins and a great finish, it's another wine from this team that can be drunk with loads of pleasure today or cellared for another decade or more.

This is a step up. Ripe and polished with lots of blackberry plum sauce and melted black licorice notes that are carried by dense but velvety tannins. Extra anise violet and incense notes push through the vivid finish where there's plenty of buried grip. A strong showing. Best from 2013 through 2019.

Saturated purple color. The nose is delightfully aromatic with blackberry cedar licorice and mint. On the attack this full bodied beauty is sweet and juicy with ripe black fruit and fresh buoyant acidity. Great concentration through the mid-palate with an abundance of ripe tannin on the fairly long finish. With time this already expressive wine will evolve into a luscious and exuberant St. Emilion that drinks well above its class. Try it now with a seared skirt steak topped with bleu cheese butter.