| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Château de Fonbel
A firm and silky red with plum and berry character. Medium body, bright acidity and an orange-peel undertone. Drink in 2020.
2015 de Fonbel is a blend of 65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 7% Carmenere and has a medium to deep garnet color. It rolls out with expressive notions of prunes, Morello cherries, and tilled red soil, plus wafts of red roses, redcurrant preserves, and Ceylon tea. Medium-bodied, the palate is lively and chewy with compelling energy and a spicy lift on the finish.
Mid crimson. Fresh, relatively simple but very pleasing. Lively and lightish.
Drink 2020-2028
The entry-level wine from the Vauthier Family (Château Ausone) and made from 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the rest Carmenere and Petit Verdot, with 30% raised in barrel, the ruby-colored 2015 Château de Fonbel gives up medium to full-bodied notes of Asian spices, white pepper, and damp herbs to go with a pretty core of strawberry and cherry fruit. Charming, layered, and elegant, with impeccable balance, it’s already hard to resist yet is going to keep for a decade. 2018 - 2028
The nose has a mix of fragrances the start of the palate fresh with red fruits. There is more depth and richness in the middle cassis and black cherry and although sweet at the back the finish is lighter with a mix of fresh fruits. 2020-31
The inclusion of all four grapes inevitably gives this wine a lot of aromatic complexity and this successfully carries
through onto the palate. A little drier and grainier that I might have expected, this is a complex de Fonbel which will require a few years to soften. I like the tone of the fruit which is plum and blackberry-themed and this will age well and
also slowly for quite some time
The 2015 Fonbel, which you might regard as the entry-level wine of the Vauthier family, is a blend of 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Carmenère and 5% Petit Verdot matured in stainless steel and French barrels (30% of the crop.) It has a straightforward, lavender-tinged bouquet with a chalky scent that becomes more apparent with aeration. It is a little tight compared to the 2015 Simard at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe tannin and a fine thread of acidity. Smooth with dark cherries, red plum and cassis notes, it exerts a pleasant grip on the finish. The class comes through in the mouth at the moment, but the aromatics will catch up during their élevage. Drink 2019-2035
This has a pretty complexity of dark fruit such as black berry and cherry. Full body, mineral undertone. Firm tannins.
This property is owned and managed by the Vauthier family of Château Ausone. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Fonbel—composed mainly of Merlot with splashes of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère and Petit Verdot—is scented of warm black plums, blackberry preserves, tar and bay leaves with touches of scorched earth and chargrill. Medium to full-bodied with very fine, silky tannins and amazing freshness, the palate offers stacks of red and black fruits, going minerally on the long finish. 2019 - 2033
