JCP Maltus, Le Dôme, 2019

Le Dôme is one of Saint-Émilion's most talked-about wines, and deliberately so. Jonathan Maltus built it around an old-vine Cabernet Franc-dominant plot on the plateau near Cheval Blanc, and the 2019 vintage shows exactly why people pay attention: it has the density of a great year married to the precision that Maltus and consultant Thomas Duclos have been refining for two decades. This is Cabernet Franc at its most serious on the Right Bank, with the ripeness of 2019 held in check by freshness and structure.

We find it just beginning to open up in 2026, with a dark, concentrated core of plum and iron-tinged fruit, fine-grained tannins, and a finish that keeps going. It will reward patience — think of it as a wine still buttoning its coat — but if you decant it generously now, there is already real pleasure here. Drink from 2026 until 2042, and it may well surprise you later in that window.