Château VALANDRAUD 2025

Description

Jean-Marc Quarin 98 points www.quarin.com
Couleur noire. Nez intense, au fruité mûr, évoluant profond à l’agitation du verre. Délicat en entrée de bouche, aromatique comme jamais au milieu, avec un gras fin parcourant le palais, le vin évolue juteux, noble et puissant sur un des grains de tanin les plus nuancés jamais vus dans ce cru. Grande puissance savoureuse. Assemblage : 84 % Merlot, 7 % Cabernet Franc, 9 % Cabernet Sauvignon. Degré d’alcool : 14° – pH : 3,5. Elevage : 90 % en barriques neuves et 10 % en foudre de bois pendant 20 mois. Pour information, Jean-Luc et Murielle Thunevin viennent de céder Valandraud à leurs associés, Christophe et Marie Lefévère. Cette dernière introduit une nouvelle nuance dans la compréhension du potentiel de ce cru en calant sa structure tanique différemment.

Neal Martin 94-96 www.vinous.com
The 2025 Valandraud was picked from September 12 to October 4 and matured in 90% new oak, the rest in wooden casks. It has an intense nose with black cherry, cassis and violet scents, more bold than the Virginie de Valandraud but perhaps slightly less delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly grainy tannins, very well balanced with good depth of fruit, spicier than the Virginie towards the finish. Good grip, more than the Virginie, this will require three to five years in bottle, but it has great potential.

Antonio Galloni 96-99 points www.vinous.com
The 2025 Valandraud is breathtaking. Its the first vintage made by Jean-Luc Thunevin and Marie Lefévère together. It therefore represents a changing of the guard, now that Lefévère and her husband, Christophe, have taken full ownership of the property after many years holding a minority stake. Vibrant and explosive in the glass, the 2025 Valandraud offers an exotic mélange of dark blue/purplish fruit, lavender, spice and mocha. There’s gorgeous precision here, much of that coming from more finesse in the tannins. The 2025 is utterly magnificent. Élevage is 90% new oak and 10% 15HL _foudres). Tasted two times.

Yves Beck 98-100 points www.yvesbeck.wine
Les nuances de baies noires bien mûres s’allient à des parfums de caramel, de réglisse et de chocolat noir avec de rafraîchissantes nuances de citronnelle et de verveine en arrière-plan. Suave et dense en attaque, le vin brille de son énergie, de sa stupéfiante aptitude à canaliser l’acidité afin qu’elle vienne prêter main-forte à des tannins suaves et veloutés. Merci le terroir ! Un vin digne d’un lanceur de poids apte à participer à un marathon !  2032-2070

Georgina Hindle 96 points  www.decanter.com (at Bordeaux, 01 Apr 2026)
A new take on Valandraud this year after Jean-Luc Thunevin sold his majority stake to Christophe et Marie Lefévère (Château Sansonnet, Château Moulin du Cadet, Château Villemaurine. With Grégory Leymarie now managing director he said this is the perfect vintage to tell a new story with a new vision and a reduction in production by 20-25%. Gorgeous heady scents on the nose, ripe blackcurrant, cherries and strawberries. Chalky, velvety, ripe but not overly so, you have that intensity and concentration of fruit – but there’s such finesse. Elegance is here in spades, this is soft and approachable already. A juicy, clean and crystalline core with a soft salty, oyster shell mineral bite. I love this for its calmness, roundness and general softness. You still have the signature fruit aspect – the spiced aromatics and the clean blackcurrant, plum and black cherry fruit – the signature of the estate is still recognisable but with a lot more delicacy. Ageing 100% new oak. 3.48pH, 4g total acidity.