Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Château Poitevin displays a beautiful ruby color with cherry reflections. The intense nose exudes complex aromas of blackberry, tobacco and honey. The palate is silky and round, with velvety tannins and good acidity. It is a supple and fleshy wine at the same time as powerful, with a beautiful length on the palate, balance and finesse.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This offers violets and some aged meat, as well as ripe purple fruit, leading to a palate that has a smooth and velvety feel and plenty of tannin crunch. A blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Revealing scents of sweet red berries, plums, petals and tobacco leaf, the 2016 Poitevin is medium-bodied, supple and perfumed, with a fleshy core of succulent, vibrant fruit, melting tannins and an expansive finish. It's an elegant, seamless wine from this 40-hectare estate.
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Vinous
The 2016 Poitevin has a crisp, focused bouquet with pure blackberry and boysenberry notes tinged with crushed stone. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, quite feminine in style with a silky smooth, black cherry and blueberry finish that caresses the senses. This is a well-crafted, utterly delicious Médoc.
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.
One of the most—if not the most—famous red wine regions of the world, the Medoc reaches from the city of Bordeaux northwest along the left bank of the Gironde River almost all the way to the Atlantic. Its vineyards climb along a band of flatlands, sandwiched between the coastal river marshes and the pine forests in the west. The entire region can only claim to be three to eight miles wide (at its widest), but it is about 50 miles long.
While the Medoc encompasses the Haut Medoc, and thus most of the classed-growth villages (Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe) it is really only those wines produced in the Bas-Medoc that use the Medoc appellation name. The ones farther down the river, and on marginally higher ground, are eligible to claim the Haut Medoc appellation, or their village or cru status.
While the region can’t boast a particularly dramatic landscape, impressive chateaux disperse themselves among the magically well-drained gravel soils that define the area. This optimal soil draining capacity is completely necessary and ideal in the Medoc's damp, maritime climate. These gravels also serve well to store heat in cooler years.