Winemaker Notes
Blend: 76% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a wine that has a broad brush of tannins that give energy and subtle texture to the palate. Beautiful blue fruit and terracotta. Really fine-grained tannins. Beautiful, sweet fruit at the finish. One of the best I have had from here. Really want to drink it. 76% merlot, 20% cabernet franc and 4% cabernet sauvignon.
Barrel Sample:95-96 -
Decanter
Always one of the bigger more powerful St Emilions, and this has plenty of estate signature. Excellent presence, it heads downwards, carving out a space for itself and settling in for the long haul. Clear oak character but not overdone, and has the glamour and sense of fun that I love about this property. Clear spice also, sage and rosemary alongside liquorice and black chocolate. This is well handled, definitely a bigger framed wine but delivered with confidence and appeal - you're going to want to try this. Tasted twice three weeks apart. 100% new oak. A yield of 44hl/ha. Every case sold this year will see one tree planted, with the hope of planting 10,000 trees.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A consistently impressive Saint-Emilion, the 2019 Château Fleur Cardinale shows the vintage beautifully, with a medium to full-bodied, elegant style as well as classic darker cherry and mulberry fruits, notes of dried herbs, loamy earth, and incense, supple yet present tannins, and a great finish. It's one classy, balanced 2019 to drink over the coming two decades. Best after 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Fleur Cardinale derives from a late-ripening site on the north-facing side of Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau. Revealing aromas of jammy cherries, spices, dark chocolate and mocha, it's full-bodied, broad and velvety, with powdery tannins and a generous core of lively fruit, concluding with a chalky finish. This is a fleshy, front-loaded wine in a contemporary style that will please consumers who favor power and richness, but which will leave purists wondering if less might be more. Best after 2021.
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Wine Enthusiast
A rich and smoothly textured wine, this is juicy with black currant fruits and ripe tannins. It has weight and plenty of dense fruit flavors along with tannins that have a fine potential for softening.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
Wine Spectator
Richly textured, with currant and fig paste notes rolling through slowly, laced liberally with humus, alder and tobacco. A touch burly, but the fruit has an unctuous hint as a counterbalance. This is for fans of the bigger style. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2024.
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.