Chateau Charmail 2014
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James
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very bright and aromatic with currants and rose petals. Medium-bodied, extremely juicy and savory. Lovely finish. Delicious already. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Charmail has a ripe, quite opulent (for the vintage) bouquet with raspberry, crushed strawberry and melted tar scents. There is great precision here. The palate is medium-bodied with plush, supple tannin, cloaked in blackberry and raspberry fruit, brown spices and a pleasant chewiness towards the finish. Maybe a little rustic compared to its peers, but I think this will age extremely well. Tasted February 2017.
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Wine Enthusiast
Unusually for the Médoc, this wine has a significant percentage (14.5%) of Cabernet Franc as well as 12.5% Petit Verdot. These two grapes give the wine its perfume and its dark color. They add to the rich tannins and juicy black currants that pack the wine. Drink this fine wine from 2020. Editor's Choice.
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Jeb
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James
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Robert
Parker -
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Jeb
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Enthusiast -
James
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James
Suckling
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
Charmail takes its name from its history that dates back to the 16th century, namely the Trevey family of Charmail who settled at that time in the Médoc. Built in the middle of the 19th century, Chateau Charmail commands a charming estate overlooking the Gironde on the northern side of Saint-Estephe. Surrounding the chateau, the vineyard is all of a piece, situated on gravel crests and at present covers some twenty-eight hectares. It is planted to Cabernet franc and Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot.
The owner Bernard d'Halluin strives to create wines of balance, and since 2017 has HVE3 certification for sustainability. Winemaking is performed by the former owner, Olivier Sèze, a trained agronomist, well-versed in the latest enological methods. Sèze has be-come a veritable pioneer ("maverick" might be the more accurate term) in the Médoc. Since 1991, his successful development of the technique called, "pre-fermentation, cold maceration" has roused interest through-out the Médoc, in Saint-Emilion, and even at the Institute of Enology in Bordeaux. The technique is similar to that widely employed by the Burgundian enologist, Guy Accad, although much less sulfur dioxide is used at Charmail. It results in deeply colored, "fatter" wines with softer tannins than might otherwise be the case using traditional fermentation techniques.