The wine offers a rich and intense bouquet of blackcurrant, blackberry and strawberry. It is smooth and full in the mouth with a velvety texture. Acidity combined with firm but well-integrated tannins are a fine supporting cast to the black fruit flavors at the end.
Average age of the vines is 40 years old.
Grilled beef steaks, or lamb chops.
"Ripe and textured with some balanced tannins, this is a wine with a good future. The blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, reminiscent of neighboring Saint-Émilion, is perfumed and lightly smoky. Drink from 2025. - Roger Voss"
- Wine Enthusiast (June/July 2023), 89 pts
"The 2019 Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux Vieilles Vignes has a terrific nose of classic limestone-influenced red and black fruits as well as leather, truffly earth, and tobacco notes. This medium-bodied, round, balanced Castillon has ripe tannins, good mid-palate depth, and a solid finish. The blend is 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc, aged 12 months in used barrels. Thomas Duclos also consults here."
- Jeb Dunnuck (Importer Highlight: Fran Kysela ; July 2024), 90 pts
"Céline Lydoire grows this wine at her family’s 34-acre estate in Belvès, the vines growing in clay-limestone soils. Her old-vine fruit is often a gentle and delicate take on Castillon, and this 2016, while solidly built, is shy, with a persistent flavor undertow of black raspberries and dark chocolate. The flavors keep giving in the end, showing the stamina to age. - J.G."
- Wine & Spirits (June 2021), 91 pts
"65% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc. Deep ruby colour with violet edging, good quality for the money. This has punch, bite, and personality without being over blown. Drink 2019-2026 Alc 14%"
- Decanter (2019), 89 pts
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
"A blend of 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Franc from the Castillon region of Bordeaux, the 2015 Chateau Bellevue Vieilles Vignes offers a solid bouquet of ripe red and black fruits, dried tobacco, and smoked earth. This carries to a medium to full-bodied 2015 that has a nicely textured, fruit-loaded, ready-to-go style that’s ideal for drinking over the coming 7-8 years."
- Jeb Dunnuck (March 2019), 89 pts
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
"Catherine and Michel Lydoire purchased this 30-acre vineyard in 1998, the vines planted on the clay-limestone slope that reaches from St-Emilion to Castillon. Their 2014 is a great bistro wine, its taut structure carrying strawberry-red fruit and rose scents. Bright and pretty, gracious and firm, this is a wine to drink in the fall with steak frites."
- Wine & Spirits Magazine (October 2017), 91 pts - BEST BUY
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
"Old vines and wood aging have given this wine rich concentration. It is smoky, spicy and still firm with tannins. The structure is filling out with the blackberry fruits and acidity. The wine will be ready to drink from 2017. — R.V."
- Wine Enthusiast (September 1st 2016), 88 pts
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
"This rich wine conveys flavors of milk chocolate and ripe black plums. It is smooth, velvet-textured and full in the mouth. Acidity and firm tannins are a fine supporting cast to the black fruit flavors at the end. Drink from 2016. — R.V."
- Wine Enthusiast (October 1st 2014), 87 pts
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
"Mint and tannins feature in the initial flavor, then it opens out to show delicious blackberry juice fruit. The tannins are dry but integrate with acidity to give more serious aspect to this balanced wine. — R.V."
- Wine Enthusiast (October 1st 2014), 89 pts
Go to Chateau Bellevue Cotes de Bordeaux Castillon Cuvee Vieilles Vignes
Château Bellevue was founded by Michel & Catherine Lydoire in 1998, with the estate’s oldest vines dating to the 1960's. To access the estate, you embark on a drive through ...
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