Château Carbonnieux 2015

The 2015 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 93/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A hot summer tempered by August rains gave expansive wines, with rounded tannins and generous fruit.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. 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

The colour is intense and deep, tending towards purple. The nose is expressive and fruity. On the palate the attack is fresh, then develops on an ample tannic structure worthy of the great wines for laying down. Cabernet Sauvignon is the majority in the blend and brings volume and remarkable length on the palate. Merlot and Petit Verdot add aromatic complexity and a certain gourmandise to the whole.

The vintage

Throughout its growth cycle the vine progressed magnificently thanks to almost perfect weather. Budbreak was rather late (around 8 April) and very uniform. The generally sunny spring gave a very even flowering around 2 June, followed by a warm and dry July, ideal for the green work. Rain at the beginning of August arrived in good quantity to replenish the vines and trigger a véraison between 7 and 10 August. The harvest began on 27 August with the Sauvignon Blanc, immediately followed by the Sémillon; the Merlot was picked from 17 September, the Cabernet Sauvignon and other red varieties from 25 September. The very favourable weather made it possible to bring in grapes of superb quality.

Red: the weather conditions were extremely favourable to the production of grapes of very high quality; the most favourable factor was the absence of rainfall between flowering and véraison, which induced water stress and the formation of small berries rich in tannins and anthocyanins. After fermentation, all the cuvées show an intense colour, a fleshy and powerful palate and black fruit aromas.

Blend of the 2015 vintage

Figures from the 2015 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 45 hl/haYield
• 27 yrsVine age
• 200,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

The winemaker's aim is to reveal the quality potential that results from precise and careful work in the vineyard. At Château Carbonnieux, winemaking is classic: everything is done to respect the fruit and to limit the negative effects of each handling. The final result must meet the objective of the 3 "F"s that define the Carbonnieux style: Fraîcheur (freshness), Fruité (fruitiness), Finesse. The organoleptic identity of each plot is now well established, which makes it possible to follow each batch very precisely up to the blending. Since the 1990s, Antony Perrin has applied the principles of modern oenology, on the advice of Professor Denis Dubourdieu, so as to leave nothing to chance.

Ageing

In Bordeaux barrels for 15 to 18 months (30% new)

Food pairings

A noble fish with firm flesh, from the sea or fresh water (sole, sea bass, John Dory, cod, salmon, Arctic char, trout). White meat (poultry, veal, sweetbreads). Roasted or braised red meat. Mature cheeses with character and powerful aromas. Hard cheeses (Cantal, tomme, Comté, Salers).

Terroir

A great terroir is a gift of Nature shaped by the work of men. The product of an original geological past, the Garonne gravel ridge of Château Carbonnieux has been under vine for more than seven centuries. The diversity of the soils along the slopes of this gravel "bean" offers a wide range of expression capable of producing exceptional white and red wines. Such a geological foundation guarantees complexity and breadth in the wines of this Pessac-Léognan Cru Classé. Today, the Carbonnieux estate covers 170 hectares of land at the gates of Bordeaux, of which the vines occupy 92 hectares in a single block, divided equally between red and white varieties.