Winemaker Notes
Château Carbonnieux has for centuries been a great classic from the region of Bordeaux. With its high standard of quality, it is the smooth result of an excellent blending of grape varieties from this region.
The vinification, both modern and traditional of red wines, is carried out by slow and gentle extraction in order to preserve the roundness of the wine and the mineral features of the soil. 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. Only the very best batches tasted are selected for the final blending of Château Carbonnieux red wines.
Blend: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
A blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot aged 12 months in 30% new French oak, the 2023 Château Carbonnieux is a rocking little gem of a wine that's well worth your time. Cassis, graphite, spicy wood, and smoke all shine on the nose, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a ripe, round, layered mouthfeel, beautiful and building tannins, and a great finish. It's a nicely concentrated, classic, layered Pessac that has serious depth and length. It's going to cruise for two decades in cold cellars.
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James Suckling
Tobacco, black currants, graphite and cigar box. The palate is medium-bodied, with restrained, delineated fruit and precise, focused tannins. Tight and elegant. Needs time.
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Vinous
Tobacco, black currants, graphite and cigar box. The palate is medium-bodied, with restrained, delineated fruit and precise, focused tannins. Tight and elegant. Needs time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Carbonnieux has turned out very well, revealing aromas of cassis, mulberries, flowers and spices, lifted by a discreet note of fresh licorice. Medium- to full-bodied, ample and sapid, it is enveloping, with good depth at the core framed by powdery tannins, concluding with a long, perfumed finish. Combining a gourmand profile with a classical sense of balance and structure, it represents very good value.
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Wine Spectator
A sleek red, with a nervy thread of iris cutting nicely through a core of gently mulled black currant and black cherry fruit. Light flashes of mesquite and savory check in alongside a late, lingering tarry tug, all while the fruit keeps pace. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
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Decanter
Brambly red fruit and leafy tobacco freshness, delivered in a medium-bodied palate. And while the freshness appeals, I sense a slight hollowness in the mid palate. Ageing should fill in the gap, but a conservative score for now.
Barrel Sample: 91
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.