Category	Red Wine
Varietals	Merlot Cabernet Franc Cabernet Sauvignon
Region	France, Bordeaux, St. Emilion
Brand	Chateau Monbousquet
Alcohol/vol	14.5%

A soft and very silky Monbousquet with wonderfully caressing texture. Full body. Delicious crushed cherries and berries. Beautiful length, too. Hard not to drink now. Better after 2024.

As to the red, I was blown away by the 2016 Château Monbousquet. This classic, elegant vintage plays fabulously well at this address. Beautiful blackcurrants, cassis, gravelly minerality, and chocolate all emerge from this full-bodied Saint-Emilion that has another level of purity and elegance over every other vintage I’ve tasted. It delivers loads of pleasure today and will do the same in 15 years as well. Bravo!

Lush, warm and exotic in profile, with a gush of blackberry, fig and boysenberry reduction notes coursing through, inlaid nicely with thin graphite and tobacco threads that provide structure. A Lapsang souchong tea depth swirls through the finish, gilding the long echo of showy fruit. Best from 2022 through 2035.

This full, generous wine has tannins that integrate well with the rich berry fruits. There is a touch of smokiness as well as spice, toast and a final velvet texture. Drink this accessible wine from 2023.

The 2016 Monbousquet has a very attractive bouquet offering copious dark cherry and boysenberry fruit, light floral scents and hints of undergrowth. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannins, quite tertiary in style and needing just a little more flesh toward the finish. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.