Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The first wine made at the new cellar, the 2014 Château Pédesclaux checks in as 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and 47% Merlot aged in 65% new French oak. It's a beautiful wine in the vintage that has awesome purity and precision in its black raspberries, cassis, crushed flowers, and hints of river rock-like minerality. Medium-bodied, silky, pure, incredibly elegant and seamless, with gorgeous purity and elegance, it's a knockout wine in the vintage.
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James Suckling
The aromas of blackcurrants, oyster shell and blackberries are impressive. Full-bodied, chewy and rich — showing a fantastic depth of fruit and intensity. Extremely long and beautiful. Needs four to five years to soften. First vintage from the new winery at this estate. Try in 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
From an up and coming property in Pauillac, this wine shows firm tannins and lively acidity on the palate, with a fruit kick on the finish. Barrel Sample: 91-93
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Pédesclaux has a tightly wound bouquet with redcurrant and crushed strawberry fruit, cedar and cigar box aromas filtering through with time. The palate is medium-bodied with firm tannin, plenty of black fruit laced with cedar and black pepper, though it does not quite deliver the complexity that I think the 2015 will on the finish. Still, it is a very capable vintage from the rejuvenated château that is certainly going places in the same way that Pontet-Canet did in the 1990s. Tasted twice with consistent notes.
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Wine Spectator
Distinctive, with a ripe cassis and boysenberry core, lined with dried anise hints and backed by ample singed apple wood notes, though this stays very polished overall. An extroverted style. Barrel Sample: 88-91
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.
The leader on the Left Bank in number of first growth classified producers within its boundaries, Pauillac has more than any of the other appellations, at three of the five. Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Mouton Rothschild border St. Estephe on its northern end and Chateau Latour is at Pauillac’s southern end, bordering St. Julien.
While the first growths are certainly some of the better producers of the Left Bank, today they often compete with some of the “lower ranked” producers (second, third, fourth, fifth growth) in quality and value. The Left Bank of Bordeaux subscribes to an arguably outdated method of classification that goes back to 1855. The finest chateaux in that year were judged on the basis of reputation and trading price; changes in rank since then have been miniscule at best. Today producers such as Chateau Pontet-Canet, Chateau Grand Puy-Lacoste, Chateau Lynch-Bages, among others (all fifth growth) offer some of the most outstanding wines in all of Bordeaux.
Defining characteristics of fine wines from Pauillac (i.e. Cabernet-based Bordeaux Blends) include inky and juicy blackcurrant, cedar or cigar box and plush or chalky tannins.
Layers of gravel in the Pauillac region are key to its wines’ character and quality. The layers offer excellent drainage in the relatively flat topography of the region allowing water to run off into “jalles” or streams, which subsequently flow off into the Gironde.