Winemaker Notes
Blend: 75% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This takes a modern approach, with a noticeable dose of dark, roasted espresso and chocolate up front, but remains grounded in the appellation's textbook racy chalk and charcoal profile. The core of lush fig, plum and blackberry fruit sits in reserve, and the finish is polished and long. Impressive. Best from 2015 through 2025.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Always one of the ripest and most hedonistic of the Fronsacs, this wine again delivers the goods. Dense ruby/purple, with loads of black currant and licorice-infused black raspberry fruit, this wine has stunning density, a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and impressive purity, texture and length. The high Merlot content always seems to ensure a wine that has accessibility young, but also has the potential to easily last for a decade or more. This is once again a major sleeper of the vintage.
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.