Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The top wine of the Despagne family, the 2016 Girolate checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, aged in 60% new oak, and comes from the humble Entre-Deux-Mers region of Bordeaux. Don’t let that discourage you, though. The wine is brilliant, yielding a deep purple color, fabulous notes of cassis, tobacco, graphite, and oak, medium to full body, and silky tannins. It’s the real deal and well worth seeking out. Notably, this wine is made from a selection done by consultant Claude Gros.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Girolate opens with fragrant notes of violets, chocolate box and licorice over a core of black cherry compote, preserved plums and fruitcake with a waft of underbush. Medium to full-bodied, rich and with a gorgeous velvety texture, it finishes very long with tons of spices coming through.
In most of France, wines are named by their place of origin and not by the type of grape (with the exception of Alsace). Just like a red Burgundy is by law, always made of Pinot noir, a red Bordeaux is a blended wine composed mainly of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Depending on the laws of the village from which the grapes come, the conditions of the vintage and decisions of the winemaker, the blend can be further supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and in rare cases, Carmenere. So popular and repeated has this mix of grape varieties become worldwide, that the term, Bordeaux Blend, refers to a wine blended in this style, regardless of origin.