Learn everything about Chateau Berliquet St. Emilion with wine tasting notes and wine with food pairing tips. Learn the best vintages, a history of the property and information on the vineyards and winemaking. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles
Chateau Berliquet History, Overview
Founded in 1768, Chateau Berliquet is one of the oldest estates in Saint Emilion. Certainly, Chateau Berliquet has the honor of being one of the first St. Emilion estates to sell their wine under their own name. In 1784, when wines were often sold as Saint Emilion, or just Bordeaux, Chateau Berliquet was already selling wine with their property name attached.
2007 marked the debut vintage for the dynamic duo of Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt at Chateau Berliquet as their consultants. However, Cyrille Thienpont was placed in charge and called most of the shots when it came to the winemaking at the property.
Starting with the 2009 vintage, Chateau Berliquet began using optical sorting at their Saint Emilion estate. They also recently purchased two new back-to-back sorting tables and increased the number of vats in their cellars to allow the estate to vinify on a block-by-block and grape varietal by varietal basis.
All of this work and attention really started to make a difference in the quality of wine being produced at Chateau Berliquet starting with the 2009 vintage.
In July 2017, everything changed with Patrick Lesquin and Jerome de Lesquen. sold Chateau Berliquet to the Wertheimer brothers of the Chanel Group. This was a smart purchase as the Chanel Group already owned the neighboring vineyard, Chateau Canon, as well as Chateau Rauzan Segla in Margaux. Nicolas Audebert manages the property.
Chateau Berliquet Vineyards, Terroir, Grapes, Winemaking
The 10-hectare, Right Bank vineyard of Chateau Berliquet is planted to 75% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. The terroir is clay, chalk, and limestone soils. The vineyard has a vine density of 6,000 vines per hectare.
The vines are old, with an impressive average vine age of about 40 years. The vineyard is one large, single block of vines. But the level of quality in the soil varies widely here. Their closest neighboring vineyard is Chateau Canon and they are also not far from Chateau Angelus on the Magdelaine plateau.
The variances in the terroir can range, depending on the specific parcel, which explains the lackluster performance of the wine until the 2015 vintage.
Their best parcels are on the higher elevations on the limestone plateau. Over the past few years, the estate has been conducting a serious reworking of their vineyards starting with replanting the sections and vines that were previously planted on the wrong rootstocks for their terroir.
To produce the wine of Chateau Berliquet, whole berry fermentation takes place in a combination of temperature-controlled, stainless steel vats and cement tanks with a 30-day maceration. Pigeages and malolactic fermentation are conducted in French oak barrels.
Starting with the 2015 vintage, 15% of the grapes were whole-cluster vinified, meaning a portion of the harvest was fermented with their stems intact. The wine of Chateau Berliquet is then aged in 50% new, French oak barrels for an average of 15 months prior to bottling. The first six months of aging are done with the wine on its lees. The wine is made by the same team that produces neighboring Chateau Canon.
The best vintages of Chateau Berliquet are: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2005 and 2000. If you are wondering why you never see older vintages of Berliquet, the answer is simple. There aren’t any. From 1953-1978 the grapes were sold to the local St. Emilion cooperative. Starting in 1978, Berliquet began making, bottling, and selling their wine.
On average, in total, close to 3,500 cases of wine are produced at Chateau Berliquet each year. There is a second wine, Les Ailes de Berliquet.
When to Drink Chateau Berliquet, Anticipated Maturity, Decanting Time
Chateau Berliquet is much better with at least 7-9 years of aging in good vintages. Young vintages can be decanted for 1-2 hours or more. This allows the wine to soften and open its perfume.
Older vintages might need very little decanting, just enough to remove the sediment. Chateau Berliquet offers its best drinking and should reach peak maturity between 9-20 years of age after the vintage.
Serving Chateau Berliquet with Wine and Food Pairing Tips
Chateau Berliquet is best served at 15.5 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool, almost cellar temperature gives the wine more freshness and lift.
Chateau Berliquet is best served with all types of classic meat dishes, veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised, and grilled dishes. Chateau Berliquet is a perfect match with Asian dishes, hearty fish courses like tuna, mushrooms, and pasta as well as cheese.
Chateau Berliquet is a Saint Emilion property to keep track of, as they are clearly striving to produce the best wine possible and have a spare no expense mentality. The progress can be seen in their wines over the past few years.
In fact, while the 2009 and 2010 were nice wines, things really took a big step forward here with the 2015 Berliquet, which is a truly, beautiful wine. For my taste, 2016 is even better. However, with the recent sale of the vineyard in 2017 to the owners of Chateau Canon, you can expect the quality of the wine to continue improving as 2020 is probably the best vintage ever produced at the estate!
Château Berliquet Wine Tasting Notes
22 Vintages 105,633 Views Sort by Vintage-Rating
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2023
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
With a single swirl, the wine is floral, with raspberries, black cherries, plums, cigar wrapper and spice. The wine is medium-bodied, elegant, energetic, and spicy, with layers of sweet, and pure, red berries with lift, and energy that you feel on the mineral-accented backend. This is the first vintage produced in the irnew cellar, which expanded from 9 tanks to 24 vats, allowing for parcel by parcel vinification. You can taste and feel the difference here. The wine blends 59% Merlot, with 41% Cabernet Franc. 14% ABV. Drink from 2026-2048. 93-95 Pts. 980 Views Tasted May 4, 2024 |
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2022
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Flowers, crushed stones, espresso, and red pit fruits create the nose. On the palate, the wine is expressive, silky, long, and deep, with intensity, purity and elegance, finishing with salty-chocolate, black, red and white cherries, plums and a dash of cocoa. The wine leaves you with refined, soft, polished edge in the finish. The wine blends 65% Merlot with 35% Cabernet Franc, 14.5% ABV, 3.55 pH. Drink from 2026-2048. 94-96 Pts. 3,029 Views Tasted May 8, 2023 |
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2021
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Flowers, black cherries, licorice and crushed stone aromatics create the perfume. On the palate, the wine is soft, polished, fresh and silky, allowing all the sweet, ripe, salty red fruits to express themselves in the mid-palate and in the refreshing, mint-accented finish. The wine blends 61% Merlot with 39% Cabernet Franc. Drink from 2025-2038. 598 Views Tasted Mar 9, 2024Earthy plums, cherries, flowers, and a touch of menthol form the nose. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, soft, bright, silky and fresh, with sweet, ripe, red fruits in the, refined finish. The wine blends 61 % Merlot with 39 % Cabernet Franc 13.5% ABV. The harvest took place September 23 - October 5. Drink from 2023-2038. 91-93 1,326 Views Tasted May 20, 2022 |
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2020
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium-bodied, elegant, refined and with a strong, floral essence, you also discover sweet, fresh, cherries, licorice, plums, and hints of chocolate mint on the nose and palate, which is all topped off with its silky, vibrant, red pit fruit and mineral-edged finish. Drink from 2024-2045. 1,471 Views Tasted Mar 21, 2023Quite floral in nature, with tinges of orange rind, cherry blossoms, licorice, red plum liqueur and minerality on the nose. The wine is elegant, fresh, polished, sweet and long. Silky and precise, with no hard edges, there is length and salty tannins with energetic, pure red fruits squeezed over crushed rocks and stones. This is the best vintage of Berliquet I have ever tasted. The wine blends 69 % Merlot with 31 % Cabernet Franc 14.5% ABV. 94-96 Pts 2,768 Views Tasted May 20, 2021 |
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2019
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Loads of black plums, flowers, chocolate and citrus notes come through easily on the nose. Medium-bodied, soft, elegant, sweet and fresh, with a salty minerality accent to the red pit fruits in the endnote, this refined gem should age quite nicely. Drink 2024-2037. 1,682 Views Tasted Mar 29, 2022 |
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2018
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Smoke, espresso, licorice, flowers, red pit fruit and crushed rocks pop up easily. The purity of the fruit, silky textures, lift and length allow this beauty to stand out. The wine has volume, depth, complexity and a velvety finish. The wine blends 78% Merlot with 22% Cabernet Franc. 3,800 Views Tasted Mar 9, 2021Espresso, flowers, rocks, anise, stones and ripe fruits only tell part of the story. The wine is rich from all the plump, lushly textured, pure fruits, licorice and dark cocoa. The wine has volume, depth, complexity and velvety textures. This is just a joy to taste. The wine blends 78% Merlot with 22% Cabernet Franc and is aging in 45% new, French oak. 93-95 Pts 4,878 Views Tasted Apr 19, 2019 |
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2017
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium/full bodied with sweet, juicy plums, a fervent dollop of minerality and a dazzling plummy endnote, the wine is made from blending 70% Merlot with 30% Cabernet Franc. 3,288 Views Tasted Apr 26, 2018 |
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2016
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Floral, fruity and perfectly ripe, the nose that combines crushed rocks and fruit is just great. On the palate, the wine is even better with its volume, lift and sweetness. Rich, energetic and silky, let it age 7-9 years and you will have a very special wine. 3,076 Views Tasted Sep 21, 2019Lilies and juicy plum scents are followed by a lushly textured, polished, sweet, fresh earthy mix of dark red pit fruits. The freshness and fruit really linger. It is going to be fun to compare the 2015 and 2016 Berliquet -- both strong years. I lean to the latter year, but I cannot decide which vintage is better. This wine was made from blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, reaching 14.3% ABV with a pH of 3.5. 3,252 Views Tasted Apr 29, 2017 |
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2015
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Loads of fresh, sweet, juicy plums, ripe, black raspberries, minerality, licorice and floral notes. The wine shows freshness, depth and precision I have not tasted before here. Clearly, this is the best vintage ever for Berliquet! The wine was made from blend of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc. The grapes were whole berry fermented and 15% of the berries were vinified with the stems sill intact. 91-93 Pts 5,607 Views Tasted Apr 29, 2016 |
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2014
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Red plum cherry and tobacco scents come quickly, Medium bodied, floral, forward and easy drinking. Not overly complicated, but it's quite charming and already fun to drink. A few years in the cellar will add more nuance, and perhaps a bit more depth. But this is not a wine to make old bones with. 2,529 Views Tasted Mar 24, 2017Soft, sweet, plumy and medium-bodied, this wine has round, easy tannins. It was produced from a blend of 75% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Franc. 88-90 Pts 2,996 Views Tasted Apr 27, 2015 |
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2013
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied, light in color, with a fresh, spicy, red fruit and thyme core that needs to be tasted early in its life. 2,876 Views Tasted May 25, 201674% Merlot and 26% Cabernet Franc produced a wine with mineral, oak, coffee and sweet cherry notes. Medium bodied, soft and forward, the finish is bright and spicy. 86-88 Pts 3,238 Views Tasted Apr 28, 2014 |
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2012
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Red and black plums, espresso and earthy notes are all over the nose. On the palate, the wine is soft, with gentle, tannins and sweet, black raspberries in the finish. 3,450 Views Tasted Jul 6, 2015A blend from 65% Merlot with 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine shows a deep ruby color with dark red berries and a cocoa and cherry finish. 87-89 Pts 3,739 Views Tasted Apr 26, 2013 |
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2011
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied, with a licorice and plum personality, the wine will be best in its easy drinking youth. 2,795 Views Tasted May 20, 201475% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc and a little bit of Cabernet Sauvignon produce the blend. Aged in 50% new oak, with coffee, black cherry, supple textures and a round, plush, black cherry-filled finish. 90-92 Pts 3,082 Views Tasted Apr 24, 2012 |
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2010
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Earthy scents, plums and stone work well with the mineral driven, dark berry finish, but the tannins are a bit dry and severe. 5,706 Views Tasted May 7, 2013Licorice, stone, coffee and blackberries make up the perfume. In the mouth, a blast of fresh black cherries, pepper and vanilla bean. 90-91 Pts 4,576 Views Tasted Jul 30, 2011 |
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2009
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
With a final blend of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine opens with floral, licorice, spice and sweet black cherry aromas. Soft and accessible, the wine ends with fennel and plums. 7,548 Views Tasted Feb 10, 2012Bottled June 1, the wine displayed a nose of licorice, coffee, sweet jammy black cherries and spice. The wine ends with a dark cherry finish with hints of green tannins. 2,979 Views Tasted Jul 19, 20112009 Berliquet comes from a 9 hectare vineyard of clay, rocky chalk, and limestone soils. The vineyard is planted at 6,000 vines/ha with an average age of 40 years. Net yields in 2009 were only 19hls/ha. For the first time the property employed laser optical sorting, a practice that will continue. Malo took place in barrels, with subsequent aging on the lees for six months. Plans call for the wine to be aged for 15 months in 50% new and 50% one year old barrels. Produced from 73% merlot, 25% cabernet franc, and 2% cabernet sauvignon, the wine offers supple textures and round tannins, and dark berries with hints of licorice in the finish. The participation of Stephane Derenoncourt and Nicolas Thienpont, coupled with their spare no expense attitude, makes this a property to watch out for. 89-91 Pts 3,069 Views Tasted Jun 28, 2010 |
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2008
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Well made, correct, medium bodied, with perhaps a bit too much oak for the level of red, crisp, mineral driven, spicy, fruit, this is already easy to drink. 3,938 Views Tasted Nov 13, 2016 |
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2006
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Surprisingly firm in character, with a more interesting experience on the stony, earthy, thyme and plum nose, than on the strict, bright, red fruit palate, this is not a wine for long term aging. 3,534 Views Tasted Nov 13, 2016 |
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2005
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied, fresh, easy drinking, soft, cherry and red berry dominated wine that is showing well today. There is no reason to age this any longer. 2,137 Views Tasted Jun 27, 2015 |
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2004
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Wet forest floor and plum pie in the nose, this fully mature, light wine requires drinking sooner than later before the remaining fruit dries out. 2,591 Views Tasted Nov 30, 2014 |
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2003
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Light in color, with cooked berry notes, the wine ends with a hint of strawberry in the declining finish. 3,222 Views Tasted Dec 18, 2013 |
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2001
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Slowly starting to fade away, yet there is more than enough, ripe, soft-textured, sweet, earthy plums, truffle, thyme and wet earth on the nose and elegantly textured palate to make this fun to taste for a few more years. However, it is time to drink up before more of the fruit continues to fade. 2,521 Views Tasted Aug 28, 2021 |
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2000
Château Berliquet (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Fully mature, the wine is medium bodied, elegant and soft, with nuances of truffle, smoke, tobacco, thyme, and cherries. There is a fresh quality to the fruit, that is present from start to finish. This is not a wine to hold for further development as the fruit is just starting to recede. 3,352 Views Tasted Dec 13, 2017 |
