| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This 28 hectare Saint Emilion property in the suburbs of Libourne is now under the same ownership as Cheval Blanc. Wine-making has changed too with a much more subtle style being produced. The vineyard is planted with 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Elevage is in double sized (500 litre) barrels which are 50% new, and 50% one year old and 10% in foudre. This gives the wine a less oaky taste than under the old regime and the wines produced here now are much more in the sophisticated, silky Cheval Blanc style. Much improved, yet modestly priced.
View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Chateau Quinault L'Enclos
This is the best Quinault ever for me with beautiful density and depth of fruit. Full body, velvety tannins and a long and intense finish. Lots of fruit, but the tannins hold it together.
Quinault l'Enclos comes from off a very gravelly soil with great drainage, but there's not a lot of water during dry periods. Adeptly produced by the team of Cheval Blanc (who purchased the estate in 2008), the wine nonetheless maintained its poise under the dry and warm ripening conditions of 2018, coming in at a respectable pH of 3.67 and relatively moderate alcohol of 14.1%. The 2018 Quinault l'Enclos has a deep garnet-purple color and beautifully expressed notes of baked black cherries, ripe black plums and boysenberries, plus hints of violets, dark chocolate, star anise and tobacco leaf. The medium-bodied palate has a gorgeous velvety texture and oodles of freshness supporting the perfumed black fruits, finishing long and fragrant. This vintage is a blend of 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc, aged in 50% new oak and the rest in one-year-old 500-liter barrels and foudres. It is tempting to drink this right now, but give it two years in the cellar for full impact and enjoy it over the next 17+ years. Drink: 2023 - 2040
Tasted blind. Unusually fragrant. Quite dramatic fruit that’s doing battle with significant tannin and just about winning. But it’s a cool customer, which delivers some sophistication and a subtle finish. 14%
Drink 2027 – 2040
Deep cherry red. Totally inviting stony/dusty refined black fruit with pencil shavings. Purissimo. Dark, elegant, in a pin-striped suit, long and slim and so fresh and with great finesse and suppleness in the tannins that are so fine you barely feel them, though you know there are plenty of them. Approachable now but likely to relax and open. Best Quinault L'Enclos I have tasted.
Drink 2023-2033
Vivid purple in colour, with blueberries, blood orange and violets on the nose. The palate is toasty with oak but rounded and plump, with fine, plentiful tannin offering a velveteen texture. The finish is long and sweet in fruit, with a lick of spicy oak that adds to the savoury complexity.
Coming from the team at Cheval Blanc and up with the finest vintages I’ve tasted of this cuvée, the 2018 Château Quinault L'Enclos comes from a vineyard near Libourne and is 70% Merlot and 15% each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s an elegant, silky wine that has terrific complexity and purity as well as medium to full-bodied richness, a concentrated mid-palate, moderate tannins, and an overall balanced, silky style that’s going to drink nicely in its youth yet also evolve gracefully.
(70 Merlot, 15 Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 Cabernet Franc) | 50% new oak – 500l barrels for 12 months | 14% alc | 40 hl/ha A very good Quinault, with perfect balance and a lovely deep, bright, plum and cherry fruit-core. This is super-smooth and really bright and the overall feel is velvety and serious and I like it enormously.
This a very gravelly soil with great drainage, but not a lot of water during dry periods. Adeptly produced by the team of Cheval Blanc (who purchased the estate in 2008), the wine nonetheless maintained its poise under the dry, warm ripening conditions of 2018, coming in at a respectable pH of 3.67 and relatively moderate alcohol of 14.1%. The 2018 Quinault l'Enclos is blended of 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc with 50% new oak and the rest in one-year-old barrels—but only 500-liter and foudres. Deep purple-black in color, it slips seductively out of the glass with notions of warm plums, blueberry preserves and mulberries with touches of spice box, tilled soil, black olives and licorice plus a waft of lavender. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is laden with muscular black fruit and licorice sparks, framed by rounded tannins and just enough freshness, finishing with a peppery kick.
