2021 Ch Gazin, Pomerol

DUE OCT 2024

Deep crimson. Intense liquorice, dark plum, blackberry praline aromas with herb garden notes. Concentrated inky dark plum, blackberry fruits, fine brambly textures, some savoury oak complexity and integrated fine mineral acidity. Finishes chalky/ al dente firm with bittersweet notes. 100% merlot. 14–16 months in new and seasoned oak. 13.4% alc

94-95 points Andrew Caillard MW

The 2021 Gazin has a harmonious defined bouquet of red and black fruit laced with black truffle and well-integrated oak. The palate is medium bodied with slightly tough tannins on the entry. A much more linear Gazin compared to recent vintages leading to a sapid finish. It pulls up a bit short now but it should fill out during elevage.

90-92 points NM vinous.com

The 2021 Château Gazin is another solid Pomerol and, I suspect, will end up being an outstanding wine. Giving up lots of red and black fruits, leather, and some earthy, herbal notes, it's medium-bodied, has a supple, rounded texture, and a good finish. It's going to keep for 20 years.

89-92 points Jeb Dunnuck jebdunnuck.com

Firm, grainy tannins accompany the core of black fruit and bark. Medium-bodied. Stone character. Mineral, with tangy acidity.

92-93 points jamessuckling.com

The 2021 Gazin is a fine effort, unfurling in the glass with aromas of sweet red berries, cherries, plums, incense and raw cocoa. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's rather rich and elegantly muscular in the context of the vintage, with a deep core of fruit, powdery tannins and bright acids. Mildew pressure combined with wet conditions that made it impossible to enter the vineyard with tractors delivered low yields of only 18 hectoliters per hectare, and the grand vin is entirely Merlot this year.

Directed by Christophe de Baillencourt and overseen by Mickael Obert, this 24-hectare family-owned estate is producing its best wines in the modern era. The vineyards themselves straddle two essential soil types: gravels opposite the château and deep clays on the plateau (where the estate is a neighbor of Pétrus, to which it ceded a prime bloc in the 1960s). Herbicides have never been used here, and cover crops are the order of the day since 2018. Planted with 85% Merlot, replanting is gradually introducing a touch more Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon (the latter first included in the blend with the outstanding 2019 vintage). New oak is much better integrated than was the case a decade ago, and Gazin has gained in depth and energy. The 2021 is a fine effort in a challenging year, and it's one of the vintage's more serious, structured wines.

91-93+ points William Kelley robertparker.com

Plenty of fruits here, although a little sombre, majoring on redcurrant, blackcurrant, hawthorn, rose stem and touches of white truffle to give a gourmet kiss on the finish. Always a serious, structured Pomerol, and it makes it extremely severe in a vintage like 2021.

91 points Jane Anson janeanson.com

Dark chocolate, perfume and black fruits on the nose - fragrant rose and iris petals. Succulent yet quite densely mouthfilling straight away, the chalky salinity and bitter chocolate edged tannins in full force gripping the tongue and cheeks with a blueberry, raspberry and black cherry fruit pulp. It certainly has the density that others in the vintage don't have but it's missing the elongation and some of the refinement that others show. You do get fully ripe fruit here though, the acidity underneath and a plushness that should see this through ageing nicely.

Drinking Window 2025 - 2040

90 points Georgie Hindle decanter.com