2025 L`Evangile (Pomerol)

The 2025 L`Evangile is a very beautiful wine. Silky and medium in body, the 2025 is a classic L`Evangile, which is shocking given the intense heat and drought of the year, along with yields of just 22 hectoliters per hectare in aggregate across the chateaux. Bright red-toned fruit, mocha and rose petal all grace the palate. Touches of blood orange and white pepper lift the brilliant finish. Elevage is 40% new oak, 40% foudre, 15% once-filled barrels and 5% amphora. This is a very precise wine and one of the top Pomerols of the year. 94-96 points

The 2025 L`Evangile is showing well, bursting with aromas of sweet cherries, dark berries, spices and licorice, framed by nicely integrated oak. On the palate, it`s medium- to full-bodied, with a rather rich, powerful profile, built around ripe but youthfully structuring tannins. It`s a blend of 87% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, some 40% of which is being matured in foudre. The vintage conditions, which produced very small berries (as little as 0.6 grams for Cabernet Franc growing on gravel), have delivered an Evangile of unusual density. 93-95 points

The 2025 L`Evangile has been given new impetus by winemaker Juliette Couderc. It is initially backward, but it really comes forth with a few swirls of the glass: black cherries, mint and juniper berries, just a hint of truffle, quite vibrant and vivacious. Wonderful delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with svelte tannins, a fine bead of acidity, superb mineralite, as if there were a bit of limestone soil, but there is none. Very saline on the aftertaste with impressive length. This is a marvellous L`Evangile given the growing season, and it seems imbued with so much personality. 96-98 points

Damson colour, this has a ton of juicy blue and black fruits, well judged density, energy and lift, clear ageing ability, grilled cumin, peony, iris flowers, slate and crushed rocks, 40% new oak, with large oak casks for almost half of the production. Less Cabernet Franc in this blend simply because of the size of the berries. 3.7ph. Blason no longer sold En Primeur, so not tasted here. Juliette Couderc director. Harvest began on August 26 with young Merlot on gravel. 23hl/h overall yield, fascinating to see how they split across different terroirs in the L`Evangile vineyard - on gravel 15hl/ha, on clay 28hl/ha, on sand, 38hl/h all due to size of berries. In practise this meant a lot of intra-plot harvesting, going through four or five times. The result is impressive. 96 points