The 2016 Tronquoy-Lalande is a brilliant wine. Wafting from the glass with scents of cassis, dark berries, cigar wrapper and loamy soil, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and seamless, with a deep and multidimensional core, lively acids and beautifully ripe tannins. Suave and elegant, this young, impeccably balanced classic will delight M?doc purists, but it is far from austere today and will offer a remarkably broad drinking window. As I wrote earlier this year, Tronquoy-Lalande is an estate that deserves to be much better known. This was the second vineyard planted in Saint-Est?phe, after the Clos of Calon-S?gur, but its Royalist owner didn't participate in the 1855 classification due to his disapproval of Napol?on III. The vineyard itself consists of a single 30-hectare block on an eight-meter-deep gravel ridge directly behind ch?teaux Meyney and Montrose. Certified organic with the 2021 vintage, Tronquoy-Lalande has never seen herbicides; and after its acquisition by Olivier and Martin Bouygues in 2006, the winery was redesigned with input from the late Jean-Philippe Delmas, equipped with two-tiered stainless steel tanks after the model used at Ch?teau Haut-Brion. Ably overseen by Yves Delsol, who has worked at the estate for 30 years and thus knows its every detail, the style is seamless, complex and concentrated, with structural elegance that reflects the quality of these gravel soils more than it does any stereotypes of Saint-Est?phe rusticity. Indeed, in any revision of the 1855 classification, this estate will clearly win classified growth status. Tronquoy-Lalande isn't sold en primeur, and readers can find all the vintages reviewed here on the marketplace.

The 2016 Tronquoy-Lalande has a deep garnet-purple color and nose of crushed blackberries and black cherries with herbs, cigar box and damp soil. Medium to full-bodied, it offers good concentration and depth with firm, fine-grained tannins, finishing long and perfumed.

The 2016 Tronquoy-Lalande is a blend of 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 58% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot. It has quite a deep and broody bouquet with blackberry, boysenberry and just a hint of blue fruit, gaining in intensity in the glass. The palate is quite firm in the mouth, robust and grippy with tarry black fruit, a pleasant compactness filtering through towards the finish. I would like to see more finesse develop on the finish here, a muscular Saint Est?phe that will doubtlessly age well, but more charm, please.