Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Powerful tannins and ripe fruits are the main characters here. With a solid, foursquare character, it is generous and opulent. Tannins and concentration are all there, resulting in a wine with serious aging potential.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Grand Corbin-Despagne rocks up with exuberant notions of wild blueberries, Black Forest cake and plum preserves with hints of lavender, underbrush and cloves. Full-bodied and with great concentration, the palate delivers bags of perfumed fruit layers, finishing with excellent persistence.
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James Suckling
Attractive violet-like flowers and fresh plums lead to a palate that has a juicy and succulent core of ripe red plums. Right at the limit of ripeness and balance. A blend of 85 per cent merlot and 15 per cent cabernet franc. From organically grown grapes. Try from 2022.
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Decanter
The acidity is high here, as is the case in many of the St-Emilions in 2016. It emphasises the austerity of the tannins, but there's plenty of savoury fruit to back things up: cassis, damson, vanilla pod and a bitter note of black coffee.
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Wine Spectator
Exotic, with a range of well-steeped raspberry, plum and boysenberry flavors that have a compote feel, while anise, wood spice and roasted apple wood notes step in on the finish. They wind up dominating a bit in the end, but in the short term there's enough fruit detail here to manage it. Best from 2021 through 2030. 7,833 cases made.
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.