2025 Courlat "Cuvée Jean Baptise"

The 2025 Cuvée Jean-Baptiste, which is pure Merlot this year (the Cabernet Franc will be bottled separately), offers dark red berry fruit, tinged with rose petal and touches of pencil box. The palate is medium-bodied, with sappy blackberry and strawberry fruit, touches of leather, quite linear towards the finish, but there is an appealing softness due to the absence of the Cabernet Franc. Give this a year or two in bottle. 
- Neal Martin (05/2026)

Deep purple-hued, the 2025 Château Du Courlat Cuvée Jean-Baptiste reveals solid aromatics of ripe black cherries, graphite, and crushed flowers. It's 100% Merlot being raised 18 months in 27% new French oak, and on the palate, it's rich and medium-bodied, with good concentration and some serious tannins on the finish. Checking in at 13.8% alcohol with a pH of 3.56, I love its overall purity. This is another terrific Lussac in the vintage that should ultimately end up being an outstanding wine, if not more. (05/2026)

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2025 Cuvée Jean-Baptiste (100% Merlot) comes bounding out with exuberant notes of juicy blackberries and black cherries, followed by hints of wood smoke, black olives, and roasted coffee bean. The medium-bodied palate is light on its feet with lovely tension and fine-grained tannins, finishing with a skip in its step. This is aging in French oak barrels, 27% new. The alcohol is 13.8% and the pH is 3.56. The IPT is 85. (04/2026)