Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
One of the best ever with super currants, mint, mineral and iodine. Crushed stones. Medium- to full-bodied, it has wonderful caressing tannins that run the length of the wine. A real Potensac, cabernet-driven, that goes on for minutes. 43% cabernet sauvignon, 36.5% merlot, 19.5% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot.
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Decanter
Fragranced, black bramble fruit, so scented and aromatic. Crystalline pure fruit, blackcurrants, cherries and plums, with grippy, but super fine and fresh tannins and balanced acidity. You get the structure - wide, firm, so refined in terms of tannic impression, they're at the fore but so discerning and integrated, really supportive and help to focus the wine from start to finish. Precise and sleek, agile yet concentrated with a lovely cool and juicy core alongside graphite and pencil lead touches. Powerful but polished and ageable. A great buy. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend.
Barrel Sample: 93 -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Château Potensac is darker and more concentrated, featuring currants, spring flowers, and graphite. Medium to full-bodied, with layered depth, balanced structure, and beautiful tannins, it’s a serious, structured Potensac.
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Vinous
The 2022 Potensac has an intense bouquet with layered red and black fruit, cedar and light mint aromas. This is a Potensac with purpose. The palate is a little creamier than previous vintages on the entry, but then the tannic framework makes its presence felt. Firm grip, quite fresh and sappy with a fine thread of acidity maintaining poise. This is a superb Potensac. Tasted twice with consistent notes, though the wood came through more at the château compared to another at Boissenot's tasting.–Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the sleepers of the vintage is the 2022 Potensac, a dense, concentrated wine redolent of crème de cassis, cigar wrapper and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, layered and youthfully structured. Rating: 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.
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.