Really smoky, coffee bean aromas on the nose with ripe blackcurrants. Great texture and flavour here, it's full of herbs and liquorice-tinged black fruits (cherries mainly) but really well integrated so that no one aspect sticks out. Tannins are super fine and smooth and the acidity is well balanced carrying the density of the fruit as well as the freshness. It's a big shouldered wine there's no question, power but also poise. Harmonious, charming and elegant. A very complete wine that is balanced with generous fruit, tannins, acidity and mineral freshness. Feels well handled and just excellently executed. Has a real purity to it with sculpting and refinement. Great stuff and still so juicy and appealing at the end. A top buy. Drinking Window 2027 - 2045

Beautiful clarity of crushed red berries with dried flowers and sliced oyster mushrooms on the nose. Full-bodied with layers of ripe tannins and juicy fruit. Chocolate and walnut character comes through, together with hints of vanilla bean. Beautifully curated. 76% merlot, 20% cabernet franc and 4% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2025.

Though barely getting going at two years old, you already see what a great wine this is. Juicy plum and damson fruits, shot through with richly textured raspberry coulis, all kissed by smoky oak without going over the top. A deft mix of tension and balance. One of my real stars of the vintage in St Emilion, and an upscore from En Primeur. 100% new oak, with every case sold seeing one tree planted, with the hope of planting 10,000 trees in total.

A consistently impressive Saint-Emilion, the 2019 Château Fleur Cardinale shows the vintage beautifully, with a medium to full-bodied, elegant style as well as classic darker cherry and mulberry fruits, notes of dried herbs, loamy earth, and incense, supple yet present tannins, and a great finish. It's one classy, balanced 2019 to drink over the coming two decades.

Dark in color with a nose that sports espresso bean, smoke, licorice, crushed stone and chocolate-covered plums. There is richness, freshness, balance, and layers of black and red fruits liberally coated with cocoa, licorice, and coffee. I am really liking how this is developing. The wine is a blend of 76% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2022-2040.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Fleur Cardinale bursts with flamboyant scents of blackberry pie, stewed plums, and boysenberry preserves, followed by hints of incense and cigar box. Medium to full-bodied, the taut, muscular black fruit is beautifully offset by a lively backbone and fine-grained tannins, finishing with great length and purity. The blend is 71% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2019 Fleur Cardinale is a real head-turner. Lush and voluptuous in the glass, the 2019 offers up copious dark fruit, along with hints of chocolate, spice, new leather, menthol and licorice. There is no shortage or richness or lushness. While the 2019 is certainly a very, very good wine it is not quite as expressive as it was in barrel. Tasted two times. -- Antonio Galloni

The 2019 Fleur Cardinale derives from a late-ripening site on the north-facing side of Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau. Revealing aromas of jammy cherries, spices, dark chocolate and mocha, it's full-bodied, broad and velvety, with powdery tannins and a generous core of lively fruit, concluding with a chalky finish. This is a fleshy, front-loaded wine in a contemporary style that will please consumers who favor power and richness, but which will leave purists wondering if less might be more. - William Kelley

Richly textured, with currant and fig paste notes rolling through slowly, laced liberally with humus, alder and tobacco. A touch burly, but the fruit has an unctuous hint as a counterbalance. This is for fans of the bigger style. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2024 through 2037. — JM