Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a fine, beautifully controlled wine. Its dark black currant fruits and firm dense texture are restrained, stylish and delicious. At the same time, the fruits offer a smooth, juicy aftertaste.
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James Suckling
This is very extracted with chewy tannins and lots of new wood but there's ripe fruit underneath and a pretty finish. Give it three or four years to soften. Fieuzal continues to improve. Best after 2016.
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Wine Spectator
A sleek, ripe, driven wine, with raspberry, black currant and pastis-soaked plum notes at the core, lined with well-embedded toast, ganache and tobacco hints. The finely beaded acidity stitches this up nicely on the lengthy finish. Best from 2015 through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet in color, the 2010 de Fieuzal rocks up with bold, confident Black Forest cake and crème de cassis scents followed by nuances of cigar box, new leather and Chinese five spice plus a waft of potpourri. Full-bodied, rich, spicy and decadently fruited, it has a chewy texture and lively freshness lifting the spicy finish.
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.