This is ripe and attractive with beautiful plum and dark-berry aromas that follow through to a full body, firm and medium, velvety tannins and a flavorful finish. Also slightly chewy at the end. Needs four to five years to soften. Try after 2023.

Always seen as a second wine, but actually coming from separate terroirs from the grand vin, the 2016 Virginie de Valandraud is a deep, full-bodied, opulent beauty that knocks it out of the park in 2016. It’s the equivalent of many a top wine and has huge notes of crème de cassis, black raspberries, spicy oak, and licorice. With ripe tannins, a great texture, and a sexy, pleasure-bent style that’s already impossible to resist, drink it over the coming 10-15 years.

While the tannins are firm, this wine's charm lies in its delicious black fruits and acidity, giving a streak of freshness to the solid texture and structure. This second wine of Château Valandraud is a fruity reflection of the more structured first wine. Drink from 2023.

Freshness is right out in front, racing the ample fruit for attention on the nose and on the palate. The wine easily sells its smoky, tobacco, licorice, dark red berry and cocoa aura. Soft tannins, sweet black plum, blackberry and a fruit-a-lious finish are the name of the game. Read more at:https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/search-wine-tasting-notes/?szSearch=2016+Virginie+Valandraud

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 Virginie de Valandraud offers gorgeous black cherries, mulberries and black raspberry scents with hints of star anise, violets and cumin seed. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firmly structured with firm, velvety tannins and tons of freshness, lifting the perfumed black fruits to a long finish. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown