Winemaker Notes
Château Carbonnieux red has for centuries been a great classic from the region of Bordeaux. The tannins are well balanced and silky in harmony with red fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry, cherry…) and reveal toasted notes from ageing in the finest quality French oak barrels.
Blend: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
Pair this wine alongside your favorite grilled or roasted meat, swordfish, tuna, and cheeses.
The Barrel Sample for this wine is above 14% ABV.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Château Carbonnieux sports a deep purple/ruby hue to go with a brilliant nose of red and black currants, spring flowers, spicy oak, and hints of tobacco. It's beautiful on the palate as well and is medium to full-bodied, has a seamless, elegant texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's the finest wine I've tasted from this estate. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all brought up in 40% new barrels. It’s well worth tracking down some bottles and will keep for two decades.
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James Suckling
Black fruit, dried sage, charred bark, lavender, graphite and oyster shell on the nose. It’s full-bodied with firm, tightly wound tannins. Focused. Excellent tannin framing. Best yet. 65% cabernet sauvignon, 25% merlot, 5% cabernet franc and 5% petit verdot.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dominated by structured Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine is powerful, with layers of woodaging flavors to go with the strong tannins. Developing slowly.
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Decanter
Strong black pepper, cloves, saffron and smoked cedar notes, adding up to spicy fruit and oak influence. A little overpowering on the attack but it settles down and this has excellent personality and hold. Good stuff. 5% Cabernet Franc completes the blend.
Barrel Sample: 92
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Exhibiting aromas of earthy black fruits, bay leaf, burning embers and forest floor, the 2019 Carbonnieux is medium to full-bodied, rich and enveloping, with a broad attack that segues into a fleshy core of fruit framed by ripe acids and fine, powdery tannins that assert themselves gently on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Solid, with red currant and cherry paste notes allied to a tarry spine, with tobacco and iron accents on the finish. Shows good drive through the finish, too. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Chateau Carbonnieux is one of the great estates in the Pessac-Legonan appellation, and it has always made sound wines. The 2019 vintage is well built on point. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits aromas and flavors of black fruit and mineral notes. Its tightly-built palate makes it perfect with lightly-seasoned lamb stew.
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.
Recognized for its superior reds as well as whites, Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank claims classified growths for both—making it quite unique in comparison to its neighboring Médoc properties.
Pessac’s Chateau Haut-Brion, the only first growth located outside of the Médoc, is said to have been the first to conceptualize fine red wine in Bordeaux back in the late 1600s. The estate, along with its high-esteemed neighbors, La Mission Haut-Brion, Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pique-Caillou and Chateau Pape-Clément are today all but enveloped by the city of Bordeaux. The rest of the vineyards of Pessac-Léognan are in clearings of heavily forested area or abutting dense suburbs.
Arid sand and gravel on top of clay and limestone make the area unique and conducive to growing Sémillon and Sauvignon blanc as well as the grapes in the usual Left Bank red recipe: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and miniscule percentages of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
The best reds will show great force and finesse with inky blue and black fruit, mushroom, forest, tobacco, iodine and a smooth and intriguing texture.
Its best whites show complexity, longevity and no lack of exotic twists on citrus, tropical and stone fruit with pronounced floral and spice characteristics.