Château Cantemerle 2006

The 2006 vintage in Haut-Médoc

Vintage benchmark: 89/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: Rain at véraison followed by a dry September gave classic, balanced wines with fine freshness, without the density of 2005.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Haut-Médoc. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

Probably one of the most beautiful Cantemerle of the decade, which displays enormous potential. It is a powerful wine, almost black in color, with great aromatic complexity to come, an opulence which coats the entire palate, and a clean and lively finish, full of freshness. To decant without fail two hours before serving, but the best is to wait until 2012, and to accompany it with roast beef with porcini mushrooms. Nice bottle for tomorrow.

Blend of the 2006 vintage

Figures from the 2006 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 30 yrsVine age
• 400,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

The production of each plot is vinified separately in large oak vats favoring a slow and gentle extraction of tannins.

Ageing

The wines are then aged in barrels for twelve months, then lightly clarified before being bottled at the château.

Terroir

The soil at Cantemerle is siliceous gravel. This gravel, the product of the ancient erosion of the Pyrenees by the Garonne, is one of the essential elements of a quality terroir. It makes for poor soils, and the vine must struggle if it is to produce concentrated grapes. These soils of sand and pebbles are also very free-draining and play an active part in ripening the grapes, since they reflect the sun's rays and retain at night the heat accumulated during the day. As they age, the vines send their roots deeper into the soil and express more fully the typicity of the terroir that carries them.