Chateau Lestignac Racigas Merlot 2014
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Château Lestignac is managed by Camille & Mathias Marquet, a young couple who inherited the family farm in 2008. The farm originally included 17 hectares of vinifera vines, but the Marquets pared the vineyard down to the best sites and introduced a diverse garden and livestock into the mix to develop a true polyculture to complement their conscientious, organic farming style.
2009 was their first vintage under the banner of Lestignac and the couple began to introduce biodynamic farming in 2011. In addition to the vineyard, the farm is home to over 200 fruit trees, 80 chickens, and 20 sheep.
Half of the vineyards are on a gentle north-facing slope of limestone with the other half on a plateau of blue clay. The Marquets rely on horses to work all parcels instead of tractors or other machines and increasingly use biodynamic preparations—including nettle, comfrey, yarrow and wicker—to eliminate the use of sulfur and copper treatments over time.
The majority of the vines are 40- to 60-years old, with selective replanting. The new vines are goblet pruned, which is unique in Bergerac, to provide more protection from the sun and foster a higher, natural acidity to ensure a fresher style of wine.
Fermentation is always spontaneous with indigenous yeasts and nothing else is added with the exception of a touch of sulfites at bottling. In 2017 the Marquets started a negoce brand, “Hors Les Murs,” and a project is in the works to start making ciders from the apples and pears grown on the property.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
Offering the perfect balance of quality and value, Southwest, France is a recognized appellation that encompasses all wine regions in France’s southwestern corner (except for Bordeaux and Cognac, which merit their very own). Two of the more famous subregions here are Cahors, known for its Malbec, and Madiran, home of the robust Tannat grape. Bordeaux Blends are also popular red wines of the Southwest; Petit Manseng is the regions’s star autochthonous white variety.