2006 Vérité Le Désir

95 POINTS

Wine Enthusiast

Extremely tannic at the age of five years, and that astringency accentuates the dryness, making the wine austere and distant. It has a dense, complex core of blackberries, coated with immaculately fine, sweet oak. Feels important and dramatic, but too young. Begs to be housed in a good cellar for a good eight years.

94 POINTS

Stephen Tanzer - Vinous

Points: 94+ Bright ruby-red. Black fruits, licorice and cedar on the nose. Broad and round but backward, with a distinctly medicinal reserve to the flavors of black fruits, menthol and smoke. The middle palate is currently dominated by the wine's spine and yet the very long finish is lush and sweet. The least obviously minerally of these three 2006s today, but offers great potential.

93 POINTS

Stephen Tanzer - Vinous

(50% cabernet franc, 40% merlot, 8% cabernet sauvignon and 2% malbec) Good full ruby. Black fruit aromas lifted by violet, pepper and fresh herbs. At once thick and weightless, with a high-toned quality and pungent minerality to the impressively concentrated medicinal blackberry and licorice flavors. This wonderfully silky blend finishes with tactile, broad tannins, compelling sweetness, and superb lingering black fruit perfume. This one will do some major damage in a tasting of top St. Emilion wines a decade hence.

90 POINTS

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

Composed of 49% Cabernet Franc, 41% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, this is one of the more monolithic Le Desirs produced. Although an outstanding effort, in the company of some of the great vintages, it comes across as a one trick pony. Though there is plenty of fruit and body as well as good size, power and an aging potential of 10-15 years, it lacks charm and complexity at this stage of its evolution.