Château Fonroque 2016

The 2016 vintage in Saint-Émilion

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A dry summer on full water reserves gave fresh, deep wines, magical on the asteria limestone.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Émilion. 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 dark and intense, the promise of a dense wine. The nose is refined, complex and pure, with aromas of black fruit, violet, cinnamon and other sweet spices. On the palate the flesh is plump and ample. A mineral expression with a saline tendency brings elegance and length. The right measure of acidity gives freshness and tension on real density. The fruit is rich and ripe. On the finish, the wine stays with you.

Blend of the 2016 vintage

Figures from the 2016 sheet

• 40 hl/haYield
• 60,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

The grapes are sorted first, then the berries, on vibrating tables and then by hand. Vinification then takes place in thermoregulated concrete vats. Alcoholic fermentations are slow, with gentle extractions lasting 3 to 4 weeks in order to extract only silky, polished tannins. Malolactic fermentation takes place in new barrels for 40% of the volume.

Ageing

30% new barrels and 70% barrels of one wine or more

Terroir

Limestone plateau and limestone-clay hillside.