Château L'Évangile 2018

Critic scores

• Wine Advocate97
• Jeb Dunnuck97
• Vinous96
• Wine Enthusiast94
• Wine Spectator94

The 2018 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: After the mildew, the heat concentrated a small harvest: rich, ripe and very dense wines.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Winemaking

Bud Burst : 3 April. Flowering : 28 May. Veraison : 3 August. Harvest : Merlot from 19 September to 2 October, Cabernet Franc from 25 September to 1 October. It is impossible not to mention the mildew problem, when the team had been working so hard to build a viticulture without residues and with high environmental responsibility. Thanks to extremely meticulous work, the team was able to restore ideal conditions in the vineyard before ripening. The effect of the heat was even stronger here than on the other bank, with ripening blocked for some young vines at the end of summer. The estate was saved by the 25 mm of rain on 7 September. The greatest pride of 2018: the excellent quality of the Cabernet Franc.

Terroir

It is through one of those mysteries of geology that, in the south-east of the Pomerol plateau, a curious accident brings a long seam of gravel to the surface. Three vineyards, l’Évangile among them, share this rare soil. The estate does indeed occupy a wholly privileged position: it is bordered to the north by the vines of Château Pétrus and is separated to the south from Cheval Blanc in Saint-Émilion only by a minor road. The area covers 16 hectares of sandy-clay soil with pure gravels and a subsoil marked by crasse de fer (iron pan). The grape varieties grown are Merlot (80%), which brings fruit, body and flesh and gives the wine its inimitable suppleness, and Bouchet, the local name for Cabernet Franc (20%), for finesse and structure.