Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This property has made so many fine efforts lately that it is difficult to say the 2009 is better than their 2005. However, the 2009 is a charming, sexy, dense ruby/purple-colored offering displaying lots of ripe Merlot fruit intermixed with hints of charcoal, black raspberries, black currants, lead pencil shavings and truffles. This full-bodied, pure, nicely textured and layered Fronsac is a sleeper of the vintage that considerably over-performs for its modest price. Drink it over the next 15+ years. This is an obvious great value!
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Wine Enthusiast
Good dusty tannins, lively fruit, a wine that seems very complete. There is a touch of final wood and dark tannins.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 Points -
Wine Spectator
Solid, with a nice, pure beam of cassis and blackberry fruit subtly laced with licorice snap and tobacco notes. The polished finish has an iron accent in reserve. Should be a solid midterm ager. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2018.
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.
Home of the very first remarkable Right Bank wines, dating back to the 1730s, Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac actually retained more fame than Pomerol well into the 19th century. Today these wines represent some of Bordeaux’s best hidden gems.
Fronsac is a very small region at an unusually high elevation compared to other Bordeaux appellations. Its vineyards unroll along the oak-dotted hills bordering the river’s edge, making it perhaps Bordeaux’s prettiest and most majestic countryside.
Merlot covers 60% of the vineyard acreage; the rest of the vines are Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac appellations are limited to the higher land where soils are predominantly limestone and sandstone. Lower vineyards along the Dordogne River mainly qualify for Bordeaux AOC status
The best Fronsac are deeply concentrated in ripe red and black berry; they have a solid mineral backbone and are rich and plush on the finish.