Château Laroque -Subskription-

94-96/100 Vinous The 2023 Laroque might be the best wine David Suire has made since taking over here a few years ago. What I admire most about Laroque is its classicism—there is plenty of that on display here. Bright acids and persistent beams of supporting tannin frame dark-toned fruit, lavender, rose petal, graphite and sweet spice in a Saint-Émilion that impresses with its vibrancy and delineation. Superb. Tasted two times. - Antonio Galloni 94-96/100 Vinous The 2023 Laroque has an outstanding bouquet that shades many of its peers. It conveys transparency and mineralité at a higher level and leaves you wanting more. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins that frame the pure black cherry and raspberry fruit. There is structure here, and the finish is notably longer than other wines of its class. This is very impressive, and I can imagine it aging with style. - Neal Martin 93-96/100 The Wine Cellar Insider Deeply colored, the wine opens with a strong, marine influence before you get to the flowers, licorice, red berries, and spice. The palate displays a medium-bodied, energetic core of spicy, fresh, sweet, ripe, salty, red fruits. Elegant in nature, there is a vibrant, almost, racy character to the fruits. This is a refined, charmer that leaves you with sweetness, spice, and ample purity in the salt-edged, red fruits that remain with you, from start to finish. The wine was made with 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, 14.15% ABV. Drink from 2028-2045. 94-96 Pts. - Jeff Leve 92-94/100 Wine Advocate Exhibiting aromas of dark, minty berries, bay leaf and creamy new oak, the 2023 Laroque is medium to full-bodied, with a sweet core of fruit, powdery tannins and a penetrating, mineral finish. - William Kelley 92-94/100 Jeb Dunnuck One for the classic Saint-Emilion limestone lovers out there, the 2023 Château Laroque is almost all Merlot (there's a splash of Cabernet Franc), and it has a pure, medium-bodied, incredibly elegant profile carrying vibrant raspberry and cassis-driven fruit, some violet and floral notes, remarkable freshness and vibrancy, fine tannins, and outstanding length. It's not massive, but it’s flawlessly balanced and just a beautiful wine in the vintage that readers will love to have in the cellars. - Jeb Dunnuck 94-96/100 The Drink Business Laroque (St Emilion; 99% Merlot; 1% Cabernet Franc; pH 3.42; a final yield of 46 hl/ha; 14.15% alcohol; aging in oak barrels, 50% of which are new; tasted at the Association des Grands Crus Classés at Dassault and then with David Suire at the property with essentially the same notes; the old Merlot turned out to be much less susceptible to mildew which hit newer clones more drastically). A vintage for the clay terroirs says David Suire. Limpid and glossy. White pepper. A little salinity and almost an iodine oyster shell element. Walnut oil, wisteria, raspberry, loganberry (above all), black cherry (but actually very little), blueberry and bramble. Blood orange (a marker of the parcel ‘les moulins’, just behind the chateau itself, apparently). Loganberry is the fruit marker that I hone in most of all. Rose petals and rose water. Very fine, very delicate and poised and very expressive of the cool slopes and plateau that together comprise its terroir. Mirror pool. The 2001 comparison again. Staggeringly pure and limpid, glossy and silky. On the palate the fruit is a shade lighter – pixilated raspberries and loganberries above all. Crystalline and fluid, lively and energetic. Very pure, focused and precise and more delicate than it sometimes is, if still very linear and long on the tapering finish. A natural acidity that accompanies the fruit throughout its journey from the attack all the way to the end. So glacially pure. - Colin Hay 93-94/100 Jamessuckling.com This is full and substantial, with firm tannins and a crunchy finish. Lots of blue fruit, blackberry, crushed-stone and mineral character. Very structured. 99% merlot and 1% cabernet franc. - James Suckling 95/100 Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux Medium intensity ruby, this is a little reserved at first, in the best way, in that it has the hidden depths that are just so promising during En Primeur, real sense of sapidity, squid ink, violet reflections, extremely vibrant, really like this, blueberry, sage, slate, lift on the finish, delicious. Beaumartin family, David Suire winemaker. - Jane Anson 96-97/100 Yvesbeck.wine Laroque offenbart zunächst blumige Nuancen, während er sonst eher seine kreidigen Eigenschaften hervorhebt. Diese zeichnen sich im Laufe der Minuten ab und gewinnen schließlich die Oberhand in Begleitung von wurzeligen, dann würzigen Nuancen, gefolgt von Noten schwarzer Früchte. Am Gaumen ist das Profil strikter und rassiger als zuvor. Es spiegelt das ton- und kalkhaltige Terroir und die Salzigkeit, die so oft mit ihm in Verbindung gebracht wird, gut wider. Der Wein ist gradlinig und präzise, hat Temperament und Temperament bzw. eine messerscharfe Struktur und hervorstechende Tannine. Ein Wein zum Nachdenken, ein Ästhet, der mit einer saftigen Spannung und einem wunderbaren aromatischen langanhaltenden Nachklang abschließt. - Yves Beck