Winemaker Notes
Blend: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
Fully aromatic on the nose, perfume and ripe fruits, so appealing, really jumping out of the glass. Succulent with clarity and precision - the fruit and overall texture feels clean and tongue-scraping, with the stone and graphite elements coming through and lifting the palate away from the fruit flavours. This has real tension and focus as well as weight on the mid-palate from the plush fruit, but it's the cooling, terroir elements to the fore right now with integrated tannins and barely-there spicing. Lovely structure and persistence. Delicious. Michel Rolland consultancy. Drinking Window: 2025 - 2034.
Barrel Sample: 92 -
James Suckling
Blackberry, black currant, dried rosemary and mocha on the nose. Peach pits and sandalwood, too. It’s medium-bodied, polished and fragrant with fine-grained tannins. Excellent length. Drink from 2025.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Mulled red and black fruits, smoke tobacco, graphite, and a kiss of minerality all emerge from the 2021 Château De France, a medium-bodied, round, supple, satisfying Péssac that has ripe yet building tannins. Give it a year or three and enjoy over the following decade.
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.