Winemaker Notes
Château Ormes de Pez 2017 is a fine and elegant full-bodied wine with a nose marked by aromas of fresh black fruit. Its structure is harmonious, despite its young age, with aromas of blackcurrant and black cherry typical of the Merlot varietal; along with toasted notes. Beautiful aromatic persistence.
Blend: 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 51% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A smoky as well as fruity wine, this stablemate of Lynch-Bages shows fine tannins as well as rich fruits. The wine is sure to develop well, so drink from 2024. Millésima USA.
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Decanter
Ormes has managed another good vintage after a run of them. This is a lovely wine and a buy for me. Succulent, bristling and charming, it has juicy brambled fruit extraction and tension. It doesn't take itself too seriously, just asking to be loved. The fruit spectrum is rich with blueberries and damsons, with integrity and a swirl of vanilla bean oak. Includes 6% Cabernet Franc in the blend. No need to wait too long for this. 45% new oak.
Barrel Sample -
James Suckling
A beautiful red with aromas and flavors of plums, spices and burnt chocolate. Medium-bodied, creamy and fruity. Juicy finish. A blend of 51% merlot, 42% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
This solid Saint-Estèphe estate has made a promising 2017 Les Ormes de Pez. Ripe black cherry and currant fruit, medium to full body, ripe tannins, and a charming, rounded style all make for a delicious, textbook 2017 that will keep for 15+ years.
Barrel Sample: 89-91 -
Wine Spectator
Open-knit, with a core of plum and cherry fruit carried by light cedar, tobacco and warm stone notes. Shows a light smoky echo at the end.
Barrel Sample: 88-91 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Ormes de Pez features black cherries and cassis notions over a core of fragrant earth, stewed tea and tobacco plus a waft of forest floor. Medium-bodied, the palate is packed with juicy black fruit with a grainy texture and long, mineral-tinged finish.
Chateau Ormes de Pez has very homogenous soil (a clay gravel mixture typical of Saint-Estephe) and many of the vines are quite old. The grapes are hand-picked. After selecting the vats and blending, the wine is aged in oak barrels for 15 months in a magnificent cellar overlooking the courtyard.
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.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.