James Suckling

A rich, fruity wine with lots of fine tannins and mineral undertones with some flowers. Medium body, pure fruit and a full finish. Drink now or hold. A blend of 55% cabernet sauvignon, 39% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot.

(01/2020)

Wine Enthusiast

This wine’s tannins are firm and initially prominent, bringing out the structure of a classic wine from Saint-Estèphe. At the same time, the wine offers fruitiness, freshness that can only come from the vintage. (RV)

(03/2020)

Jeb Dunnuck

This large estate has turned out a classic wine in 2017 that just screams of Saint-Estèphe. Checking in as a rough blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, and the rest equal parts Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, it will spend 18 months in 60% new French oak. Textbook Saint Estèphe dark fruits, damp earth, and tobacco leaf all flow to a medium-bodied, rounded, nicely textured wine that has the cooler, perfumed, aromatics style of the vintage, good mid-palate depth, and gorgeous purity of fruit. Classic Bordeaux lovers will dig this.

(04/2018)

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2017 Capbern is medium to deep garnet-purple colored with aromas of baked blackberries, Morello cherries, cassis, fertile loam, unsmoked cigars and sautéed herbs. The palate is medium-bodied, firm and grainy with a good black fruit core and red fruit sparks on the finish. (LPB)

(03/2020)

Vinous

The 2017 Capbern was bottled at the end April 2019. The wine has a perfumed bouquet with black fruit and light marine aromas, and a touch of brine in the background. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly dry tannin, very classic in style and quintessentially Saint-Estèphe. Moderate in length, there is a slight rawness on the finish. (NM)

(02/2020)

Decanter

Deep crimson with purple rim. Fresh and delicious bramble and cassis fruit. Firm, finely grained, super-fresh. Slightly chewy but with plenty of dark fruit in the middle. Full but balanced. (JH) 16.5/20

(04/2018)

Jancis Robinson

55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc. They are still restructuring the vineyard, apparently -- the youngest Merlot vines are now 20 years old and the Cabernets 15. Deep crimson with purple rim. Fresh and delicious bramble and cassis fruit. Firm, finely grained, super-fresh. Slightly chewy but with plenty of dark fruit in the middle. Full but balanced. (JH)

(04/2018)

Wine Spectator

Fresh and juicy, with pomegranate and damson plum fruit laced liberally with lilac, savory and pebble hints. (JM, Web-2018)