Mission Codename Welcome to the Pleasuredome
“A brilliant, brilliant wine that does everything right… one of the most flamboyant, sexy, opulent wines in the vintage…”
You’re given $200 and one mission - to upstage a $550 Château Angélus Premier Grand Cru Classé A and compete with the $1,000+ Lafites or Moutons. How do you do it?
There’s only one answer.
Le Dôme! The cult garagiste rarity with TWO perfect 100-point scores?! UNDER $200?!
Le Dôme always brings the BOOM factor, but this vintage in particular is simply one of the best. Robert Parker called Le Dôme a “Cheval Blanc look-alike.” That rings true here, but the price couldn’t be any different (expect to pay upwards of $1,000 for a top Cheval vintage.)
We owe it to your support. Evert JCP Maltus wine we offered has vanished in record time - from the best of Bordeaux (Les Astéries) and Napa Valley (World’s End), and now this - the cherry on the cake. The pearl of the portfolio. The COOLEST winery centuries-old Bordeaux has ever seen.
When Agents Noir and Vine made the pilgrimage to Le Dôme last year they could not stop talking about it for months. Parked right between Angelus and Le Mayne, this special 8 acre plot shares a similarly sandy soil on top of limestone and iron.
The vineyard is meticulously farmed for this special wine. Multiple culling of green harvests leave just a handful of clusters to ripen - where there could be ten you find just four. Careful pruning opens the grapes up to the sun, and at harvest the grapes are sorted twice - first by bunch, then after destemming, grape by grape. From there the star treatment continues with aging in new French oak which levels up the lavish, toasty, expensive tasting profile.
One sip and you’ll understand the fuss. Black cherries dusted with lavender, pure cassis, kirsch, fresh black licorice, blueberry pie and notes of Chinese five spice and crushed stone. The very definition of opulent. It finishes long, has the ability to age decades, and delivers a positively thrilling experience.
Who but Robert Parker to summarize it best, “Le Dôme, which is dominated by an incredibly high percentage of Cabernet Franc (80%) and the balance Merlot (20%), is a special effort that must be tasted to be believed.”
Will you be one of the lucky ones who taste it?
Move fast ‘cause there’s precious little to spare. The burning question: how long until it sells out?
100 Points – Jeb Dunnuck
“The 2016 Le Dôme is a brilliant, brilliant wine that does everything right. Sporting a saturated purple color, it has a huge perfume of blueberries, spring flowers, graphite, wet stone, and camphor. Incredibly layered and complex, with full body, building, ultra-fine tannins, a multi-dimensional texture, and a monster finish, it’s unquestionably one of the most flamboyant, sexy, opulent wines in the vintage yet stays ethereal, elegant, and weightless. Coming from a site not far from Angélus and a unique blend of 80% Cabernet Franc and 20% Merlot from tiny yields, aged in 80% new oak, it has the class and fruit to shine even today but will be better with 3-4 years of cellaring and I suspect capable of lasting for 2-3 decades. Drink 2022-2052”
100 Points, Cellar Selection – Wine Enthusiast
“This 80% Cabernet Franc wine may be massive, but it is also perfumed with swathes of opulent black fruit. It comes from a great year for Cabernet Franc, which forms 75% of this vineyard. Juicy acidity gives the wine a velvet character that is enticing. It needs time, so wait to drink from 2026.”
What the Winery Says
2016 St.-Émilion Grand Cru
- Winemaker
- Jonathan Maltus
- Varietals
- 80% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot
- Vintage
- 2016
- Alcohol
- 15%
- Appellation
- Saint-Émilion, Libourne
- Terroir
- Lieu-dit Les Verdiannes
- Soils
- Sand over crasse de fer
- Vineyard size
- 20 hectares
- Vines planted
- 1960-1970
- Aging
- 18 months
- Barrels
- 80% new French oak