Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is firm and silky with a solid core of blueberry and dark-chocolate character. Medium to full body and a linear finish. Driven and focused red.
Barrel Sample: 91-92 -
Decanter
There's always lovely texture and flesh in this wine, and it's a success in 2017, with an intense end of summer fruit feel and a cinnamon edge. It's clearly been carefully worked to soften those tannins, delivering structure without closing the fruit down. Around 3ha of the 12.54ha estate were affected by frost. Harvested 18 September to 5 October. 78% of production for the grand vin, 22% for the second wine. 37% new oak. Hubert de Boüard is consultant.
Barrel Sample
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.