94 points James Suckling
This delivers a stylish impression from the get-go with a really nicely focused dark berry nose and hints of fresh pastry. The palate has a smooth array of bright blackberry and plum fruits with smoothly cut tannins that layer up nice and even. Classy. Best from 2022. (2/2018)

92-94 points Wine Enthusiast
Barrel Sample. The pure red-fruit flavors of this wine shoot through the firm tannins to give freshness while allowing plenty of space for the development of the tannins. It is a wine that shows both the fruit and the structure of the vintage. (RV) (4/2016)

89-92 points Wine Spectator
Enticing, with a tangy iron note to the fresh red currant and bitter cherry fruit flavors, followed by a lingering sanguine edge on the pleasantly dusty finish. (JM) (4/2016)

91 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
It has a fresh blackberry, tobacco and graphite-scented bouquet that is well defined, gaining intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and crisp acidity. It feels fresh and lively with a welcome tang of salinity on the finish. It is not as powerful as other vintages that I have tasted, yet it is very well balanced and feels sustained on the aftertaste. (NM) (2/2018)

2015 Chateau. Chasse-Spleen, Moulis, Bordeaux
Moulis is slightly set back from the Gironne River flanked by Margaux to the south and Saint-Julien to the north. Here, Château Chasse-Spleen, ever since Bernadette Villars and her husband joined back in 1976, has delivered at an impressively high and stable level.

Bernadette was one of the first female winemakers in the Medoc, and her project was therefore closely followed by her male colleagues and not least the press, and as the investments she was allowed to make began to be tasted in the finished wine, respect grew for both Bernadette and Chasse-Spleen. Since then, her project has been continued and lifted first by her eldest daughter Claire and since 2000 by the youngest daughter Céline Villars.

Chasse-Spleen now has over 95 ha. vineyards spread over a number of smaller plots of which the 65 ha. with vines with an average age of around 35 years, located around the village of Grand Poujeaux and classified as Moulis.

All stems are removed before the grapes are lightly crushed and fermented parcel by parcel in a mixture of stainless steel and cement tanks. The final wine is blended in January and then matures for 14 years in casks, 40% of which are new each year. The wine is then clarified, as tradition suggests, with egg whites before bottling.

A quite dark and dense wine with lots of black cherries and blackberries that really come out when the wine is given some time or thrown into the glass. Then delicate notes of vanilla, smoke and pipe tobacco from barrel aging and blackcurrant jam arrive. Medium-bodied, juicy and on the elegant side with supple silky tannins that give the wine a fresh finish.

The courtyard in front and the park around Château Chasse-Spleen are packed with exciting and humorous works of art and since Céline Villars came along, a poet has had a verse or a statement printed on the label. In 2016, it was the turn of the Japanese writer and translator Ryoko Sekiguchi, and she encourages us to enjoy life in this way: "Percevoir l'énigme sans prétendre la resouder: la seule facon de vivre sa vie." which means something like "Life is a riddle that you don't have to spend time solving while you're alive."

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