Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Darker plum and berry fruits, graphite, cedar pencil, and sappy flower notes all emerge from the 2010 Château De Pez, a medium to full-bodied effort that has fine tannins, juicy acidity, good balance, and solid length.
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Wine Enthusiast
This firmly tannic wine boasts solid structure and density. It has powerful concentration, due to very low yields. The fruit is ripe, driven by notes of black plum and berry. This is a wine with a long-term future.
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James Suckling
Currants and blackberries, with licorice and flowers. Full and firm, with silky tannins and a pretty finish.
Barrel Sample:90-91 Points -
Wine Spectator
is has a crunchy feel, with brambly acidity and an energetic core of damson plum, red currant, lilac and chalk. Stays refreshing through the finish, showing a pleasant austerity and fine length. Drink now through 2022.
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.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.