Winemaker Notes
Blend: 73% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very beautiful purity of fruit on the nose with currant, cherry, blackberry and dried lavender. Full-bodied, yet balanced and refined with beautiful, fine tannins and a fresh, vivid finish. I am impressed with the intensity and balance to this wine. Best ever? Try after 2026.
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Wine Spectator
The dark currant and boysenberry fruit is distinctive, with nice rippling energy underneath. Anise, sweet tobacco and apple wood accents are starting to form on the finish. There's a lot here.
Barrel Sample: 92-95 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Château de Ferrand—one of my consistent Saint-Émilion favorites—show excellent richness and persistence. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of currants and dried earth. Serve it with grilled lamb shanks. (Tasted: November 10, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
Made from 73% Merlot and 27% Cabernet Franc, the 2018 Château De Ferrand reveals a deep, inky color as well as a brilliant perfume of cassis, black raspberries, spice box, and crushed rock-like minerality. It's relatively supple and forward on the palate, with terrific fruit and medium body, but firms up nicely on the finish with ample tannins. It might be the finest vintage I've tasted from this estate.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Decanter
Austere for the first few beats, then things settle in and open up to show loganberry, raspberry and rosemary notes, with a slate texture from the mid-palate onwards that gives a lovely slow finish. One to savour. Axel Marchal is the consultant as of this vintage. Drinking Window 2024 - 2040
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.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.