Alexandre Ma om:
Chateau L’Evangile
Hearing that berry weight was only around 0.8g, I couldn’t help but worry that l’Évangile 2025 might turn overly muscular and alcohol-driven. Yet as a thread of iris and violet gently rises from the supple texture, as black mulberry and black goji wrapped in a touch of cream slowly unfold, and as all that could have been forceful is instead softened and brought into balance, I find myself smiling in quiet relief. Under Juliette’s team, faced with the extreme heat and drought of 2025, a remarkably restrained approach was chosen: lowering canopy height and shortening extraction time, with 15 days of maceration on gravel and 19 days on clay. As a result, that hint of graphite and finely powdered tannins, tucked within a cream-puff-like softness, no longer shows any hardness, but instead integrates seamlessly into the wine with a deep, contained strength, full yet never excessive. Like a distilled floral essence born of fire, it is soft, pure, and perfumed, its sharpness dissolved into a pool of crystal clarity, before settling into a hushed, lingering, and deeply evocative finish. In my view, 2025 stands as Château l’Évangile’s finest vintage since 2017.
