Winemaker Notes
Blend: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The ripe black-fruit character easily carries the smoky oak, and the wine has plenty of substance and power without making itself even slightly heavy. The finish has some real power.
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Decanter
Owned by the same family as Cos Labory (with a little more clay in the soils here, explaining the richer expression), this is a wine worth seeking out, and it should develop well over the next 10 years. Plump black fruits through the palate accentuate the fairly modern impact, as do the touches of finessed caramel and dark chocolate. The oak use is evident (one-third new), but it remains in balance and there's both persistency and impact on display.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.