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Country: France, Bordeaux, MargauxGrapes: Cabernet SauvignonABV: 14%Style: Savoury Classic RedZédé de Labégorce is the second wine of Château Labégorce, one of Margaux’s oldest estates with a history dating back to the fourteenth century. The estate lies on the plateau to the northwest of Chateau Margaux and just to the north of Chateau Lascombes. In keeping with the rest of the commune, Labégorce produced exceptional wines in 2020. The Zédé de Labégorce shows all of Margaux’s style and elegance but has a powerful structure thanks to the heat and the high levels of Cabernet Sauvignon in -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Saint EmilionGrapes: MerlotABV: 14%Style: Savoury Classic Red93 Points - Wine Enthusiast. Château Fonroque produced an excellent wine in 2017. The 2017 vintage was unusual and not without its challenges. A hard (-6°C) frost on the 28th of April reduced the potential crop significantly as did a lack of rain in the spring. Happily a dry summer and sunny autumn allowed Fonroque to bring in a relatively small, but healthy harvest. The grand vin is a blend of 93% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc, a mix that played to the vintage’s strengths. Typically powerful and -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Canon FronsacGrapes: MerlotABV: 14%Style: Savoury Classic Red90 Points - Jeff Leve. Château Vrai Canon Bouché hails from Canon Fronsac and since 2005 it has become one of this commune’s leading wines. Its single vineyard is planted with a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc and is hand-tended like it was a garden. The owners have steadily reduced the use of chemicals and have deployed natural methods to restore the soil’s vitality. 2017 was a particularly successful year for the property. Writing in the Wine Insider, Jeff Leve awarded it 90 points -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Saint EstepheGrapes: MerlotABV: 13%Style: Savoury Classic Red92 Points - Wine Enthusiast. Chateau Petit Bocq made the most of its scattered Saint Estèphe plots and selected only the finest fruit for its Grand Vin in 2017. This Cru Bourgeois Supérieur is made up of 50% Merlot, 48% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2% Petit Verdot from vineyards that border the likes of Cos d’Estournel and Montrose. Known as one of the best value wines in all of Saint Estèphe, it’s been described as a ‘…seriously structured wine. It also has density and solid black fruits that are r -
Country: France, Bordeaux, MargauxGrapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, MerlotABV: 13.5%Style: Savoury Classic Red95 Points - Decanter. The Chateau Cantenac Brown 2016 is another fantastic wine from this esteemed property. Composed of a blend of 68% Cabernet Sauvignon and 32% Merlot, it’s a sensational wine that bears all the hallmarks of this great vintage. The years of hard work and investment that have flowed into this estate have paid significant dividends and Cantenac Brown is now back where it belongs amongst the finest wines in Bordeaux. Compared to its neighbours Chateau Palmer and Chateau Margaux, -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Saint EmilionGrapes: MerlotABV: 14.5%Style: Savoury Classic Red95 Points - Decanter. Like many leading properties in Saint Emilion, Château Fleur Cardinale produced an outstanding wine in 2019. A severe frost in May saw the loss of over 1.5 hectares of grapes, and the heat that followed further reduced yields leaving a small, exceptionally concentrated crop. Being a blend of 71% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet it will drink well young, but has the structure and abundant fruit to age and develop over the next two decades. Decanter awarded the Châ -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Saint EstepheGrapes: Cabernet SauvignonABV: 13.5%Style: Savoury Classic Red93 Points - Decanter. Chateau Meyney 2020 is probably the best wine this impressive property has produced since its acquisition by Crédit Agricole Grands Crus in 2004. 2020 was an exceptional year in Bordeaux and the conditions seem to have agreed with Chateau Meyney’s well-placed vines. Scoring 93 from Falstaff Magazine and Jeff Leve who described it as, ‘Rich, ripe, supple and lush, the wine is polished, fresh and offers layers of fruit-filled pleasure with every sip’, this is a seriously good -
Country: France, Bordeaux, PomerolGrapes: MerlotABV: 13.5%Style: Savoury Classic Red94 Points - Jeff Leve. Even in the context of Pomerol, Clos l’Eglise is a tiny property. In an average year, its 5.98-hectare vineyard (which isn’t a walled ‘clos’) yields only 2,800 cases of wine, and given its rising popularity, stocks are quickly exhausted. The secret to its success – alongside the huge investment by its owners the billionaire Garcan-Cathiard family – is its sandy-gravel topsoil, hard-pan subsoil and climate which is drier in the summer and winter than further west in the Med -
Country: France, Bordeaux, PauillacGrapes: Cabernet SauvignonABV: 13%Style: Savoury Classic Red91 Points - Wine Enthusiast. Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste produced an outstanding 2013. Writing in the Wine Advocate, Neal Martin described it as ‘one of the finest Pauillac wines of the vintage.’ A cool, wet spring, baking hot July, and a harvest carried out in fits and starts, this was a vintage that tested the winemakers’ skills to the limit. Grand-Puy-Lacoste’s Xavier and Emeline Borie were more than up to the challenge though and produced a wine that warrants its status as a Grand Cru Classé. -
Country: France, Bordeaux, Pessac LeognanGrapes: Cabernet SauvignonABV: 14%Style: Savoury Classic Red96 Points - Wine Enthusiast. La Mission Haut Brion produced a typically brilliant wine in 2008. While the vintage as a whole has been somewhat overshadowed by the 2009 and 2010, the 2008s are often exceptional and offer great value for money by comparison. Robert Parker awarded this classic blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Merlot, and 6% Cabernet Franc 95 points praising its ‘Medium to full-bodied and concentrated with good acidity, freshness and delineation.’ Neal Martin gave the 2008 96 po -
Country: France, Bordeaux, PauillacGrapes: Cabernet SauvignonABV: 13%Style: Savoury Classic RedLynch Moussas 2008 produced an impressive wine in the underrated 2008 vintage. Robert Parker awarded it 88-89 while Wine Enthusiast gave it 89 and described it as being ‘intensely spicy wine, full of exotic flavours, dried prunes, figs and a powerful layer of cinnamon.’ Created from a classic blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Lynch Moussas has always made a traditional style of Pauillac and is renowned for its longevity and complexity. Vivino Rating: 4.1 (Jun 2024) Taste Medium-red with ga