| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
This super-cuvée is made by the Canon La Gaffelière team from 4.5 hectares of 60 year old vines - 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc. The tiny vineyard is situated near to Troplong Mondot and Tertre Rôteboeuf. It burst onto the scene at the height of the garage wine boom with a monster 1996. Annual production is usually less than 1,000 cases.
Ruby and violet-laced colour, glass-staining berry fruit, clear limestone influence, sappy and a little austere, slate and juice. Muscular in its colour and aromatics on the attack, then it contracts halfway through the palate and the grippy tannins come into play. A yield of 36hl/ha. Good stuff.
Drinking Window 2028 - 2040
Inky purple in the glass. Powerful, ripe fruit on the nose, with roasted cherry and plum jam. The palate is not over-extracted like it could be in the past, but there is a full, rich and ripe core of fruit. This is full of glycerol, giving and silky, round and full-bodied mouthfeel. Dense black fruit and toasty oak compete through to a bold, enduring finish. Not for the faint-hearted.
(90% M, 10% CF; 36hl/ha; 14.5% ABV; 60% new)
Intensely black-fruit ripe on the nose; deep, concentrated wine, with a marked acidity, and fine but long-term, slightly chewy tannin; very ripe black cherry in flavor, the acidity giving it a great sense of vigor and vitality, long and close-grained, racy and exciting to taste, intense yet without excess, and with splendid length. A very harmonious Mondotte in its intense, showy, somewhat muscular style. It will need a decade at least to really begin to show its paces. 2032–50+.
