Château Carbonnieux 2018

The 2018 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 95/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: After a spring marked by mildew, the heat concentrated a small crop: rich, ripe wines with great depth of material.

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 wine has a deep purple colour with ruby highlights. On the nose the fruit prevails over the oak, with blueberry-type aromas from the magnificently ripened Merlots; the fine power of the Cabernet Sauvignon is also recognisable, underpinned by "smoky" aromas. On the palate the attack is unctuous, full and powerful, with a slight oaky note and no astringency or hardness in the tannins. This wine needs to blossom through ageing, but it is without doubt a wine full of great promise.

Blend of the 2018 vintage

Figures from the 2018 sheet

• 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 (40% new)

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.