This is a modern wine, in keeping with the estate signature – gourmet and glamourous with good persistency. It has rich fruits and oak influence that comes through as cloves and smoked almonds with pencil lead and graphite joining the black cassis fruit as it opens up. It should age well but will be ready to enjoy relatively young as this style suits fruit that remains plump and rich. The harvest took place between 19 September and 3 October. 100% new oak, integral vinification, 7.5ha but 6ha in production. A yield of 35hl/ha. 92 points

Black core. Dark, ripe and luscious fruit on the nose. Blackberry and elderberry compote, full on. A touch charry on the palate but the tannins unexpectedly gentle and rounded. Not sure how well this will age but quite seductive in that ripe roundness. Not my favourite style of wine but could give pleasure if it is yours. 16 points

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Le Gay opens with fragrant notes of lavender, oolong tea, baked plums and blueberry compote leading to wafts of red roses, spice cake and fallen leaves. Full-bodied, concentrated and decadently fruited, it has a firm backbone of rounded tannins and lovely freshness lifting the perfumed fruit to a long finish. 94-96 points

One of the highlights of the vintage, the 2018 Le Gay is fabulous. Crème de cassis, new leather, tobacco, minty and dried flowers all race out of the glass, but what impresses most is the wine`s combination of fruit richness and vertical explosiveness. Black cherry, coffee, dried flowers, mint and lavender all soar. Le Gay is rich and concentrated in feel, and yet all the elements are wonderfully fused together. 94-97 points

This is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, from 7.5 hectares of vines (although only 6 hectares are currently in production). The fruit was picked between September 19th and October 3rd, the fruit cofermented (something they do in good vintages), with 100% microvinification in new oak barrels. The yield was 35 hl/ha. A fabulous nose, dark, brooding, with degraded black cherry and black plum, a very fragrant and perfumed style, beautifully poised, pure, deep and expressive. The palate is similarly convincing with dark plum, olive and currant fruits, dressed with pepper, soot, violets and rose petals, but it is the brooding black fruit that really dominates, even if it never denies that floral and elegant perfume a chance to shine. The tannins are very finely grained, wrapping around the middle of the palate and the end with a wonderfully confident poise. Long and tense in the finish, with tightly knit and grippy tannins throughout, this is a quite striking wine. In fact it is magnificent, brooding, perfumed, confident and correct. Tasted three times, the first sample was breathtaking and flirted with perfection, while the second, tasted at the château, fell just short. A third, sought out especially to resolve the difference, was closer to the second than the first. A superb wine. 97-99 points