Skip to main content
Our biggest wine deals. Available by text! Join Winetext.com today!

2018 Chateau Le Dome St EmilionBlend from France

$159.99

List Price: $189.99

You're saving $30.00!

  • 97+ Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com
  • 97+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  • 97 Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast
  • 97 Georgina Hindle - Decanter
  • 97 Jane Anson - Decanter
  • 97 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent
  • 97 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider
  • 96 Antonio Galloni - Vinous
Image selector to view bottle Icon sized image of item case card

About

Ratings:

97+

While I don't think the 2018 Le Dôme hits the same heights as the 2010 or the 2016, it's nevertheless a beautiful wine in every sense. Based off 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot brought up in the usual 80% new barrels, it's a full-bodied, beautifully textured, seamless Cabernet Franc with loads of red currant, blueberry, and mulberry fruit as well as notes of cedary herbs, flowers, camphor, and new saddle leather. Always a singular, distinct wine given its high percentage of Cabernet Franc, it's brilliantly concentrated and has ultra-fine tannins as well as a great finish. Haut Couture at its finest, it's going to benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age, and I suspect, keep for 30 years or more.

97+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Le Dome is from the JCP Maltus portfolio of skillfully crafted Saint-Émilion wines. Neil White is the head winemaker and Thomas Duclos is a consultant here. The 2018 Le Dome is composed of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot, with a 3.82 pH and 14.3% alcohol. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it slips sensuously from the glass with beguiling scents of blackberry pie, kirsch, blueberry preserves and plum pudding, plus suggestions of menthol, rose oil, pencil shavings and fragrant earth. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers fantastic energy and freshness, featuring loads of perfumed red and black fruit layers and a firm, very finely grained texture, finishing on a lingering mineral note. Stylistically, this is one of the most elegant vintages of Le Dome that I've tasted—and I love it!

97 Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast

A wine that celebrates Cabernet Franc, this comes from a parcel on the lower slope of Saint-Émilion. Its perfumed richness is profound and dense in structured black fruits. Old vines give concentration and add to the great power behind it all. This is a wine to age; drink from 2026.

97 Georgina Hindle - Decanter

High toned and very ripe on the nose - really heady and perfumed black, jammy fruits. Big and dense, but more in the flavours rather than the texture here, you get a lot of liquorice and the Cabernet showing its star power - dark and brooding with layers of complexity, acidity and concentration. Completely different in style to the 2019 - this is perhaps a little quiet right now to some extent, just waiting for it's time to shine. Potentially has more grip and structure to go the distance while the 2019 may end up being more elegant. This has character though with a lovely chalky minerality. A bold, imposing wine.

97 Jane Anson - Decanter

With high expectations that this will be classified at the next round in 2022, and the new winery by Sir Norman Foster nearly completed, it's fair to say that this is a good moment for Le Dôme. The high Cabernet Franc percentage makes its presence felt, and I suggset giving it the full 10 year ageing to really reveal all the nuances, but there is plenty to admire even at this early stage. You feel the grip and the verticality as it moves through the palate, and there is a lovely smoke, flinty edge that is coming to the fore alongisde the anis, clove and marzipan notes now the wine is in bottle. Imposing, as Le Dôme always is, with real presence and character. 80% new oak for malo and maturation. 3.82pH.

97 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

The 2018 Le Dome is composed of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot. Deep purple-black in color, it needs considerable swirling to unlock notes of wild blueberries, black raspberries, and chocolate box with touches of rosehip tea, aniseed, and candied violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has beautiful freshness and very fine-grained tannins supporting the expressive blue and black fruit layers, finishing very long and fragrant.

97 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider

Dark in color, the wine balances power with intensity. You find layers of richness, fruit, crushed rocks, stone, burnt caramel, espresso, ripe, lush plums, thyme and spice in every sniff, swallow and sip. The wine fills your palate while offering balance, complexity and a long, fruit-filled finish. Created from 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot

96 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2018 Le Dôme is rich, deep and yet also translucent, with striking depth and tons of character. Sweet black cherry, lavender, spice and menthol lend tons of nuance. As always, Cabernet Franc drives Le Dôme, and that comes through loud and clear in the wine's lifted aromatic profile and pulsing energy. The 2018 is a rare Le Dôme that will require only minimal cellaring.

Product Detail

Item # 141281
Country France
Region Bordeaux
Sub-Region St. Emilion
Ratings

97+ - Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

97+ - Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

97 - Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast

97 - Georgina Hindle - Decanter

97 - Jane Anson - Decanter

97 - Lisa Perrotti-Brown - The Wine Independent

97 - Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider

96 - Antonio Galloni - Vinous

Vintage 2018
Color Red
ABV N/A
Varietal(s) Cabernet Franc, Merlot
Size 750mL
Closure Cork
Features
Taste tobacco, raspberry, cassis, violet, pepper, green bean, currant, black cherry, plum, bell pepper, olive, oak, smoke, toast and tar
Nose tobacco, broccoli, berry, flower, violet, rose, truffle, earth, coffee and leather