Why this vintage
- 96/100 from Vinousand 4 other scores above 90/100.
- The 2021 vintage in Saint-ÉmilionFrost followed by a cool summer brought back classic wines, lighter and more taut, to be drunk in their youth.
Critic scores
- Vinous96
- Wine Enthusiast96
- James Suckling94-95
- Wine Advocate93
- Wine Spectator92
The 2021 vintage in Saint-Émilion
Vintage benchmark: 85/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: Frost followed by a cool summer brought back classic wines, lighter and more taut, to be drunk in their youth.
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.
Blend of the 2021 vintage
- 58 % Merlot
- 42 % Cabernet Franc
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2021 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 78 % merlot, 22 % cabernet franc, chardonnay — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2021 sheet
- 13.7 % vol.Alcohol
Winemaking
Integrated farming. Pruning in single and double guyot. Grass cover between rows. Leaf removal and green harvest. Hand picked into small crates. Date of harvest: Merlot, from 22 September to 15 October; Cabernet Franc, from 4 to 12 October. The grapes are kept for 12 hours in a cold room at 7°C before passing through the optical sorter. Vinification by parcel in stainless-steel temperature-controlled tanks. Cold pre-fermentation and warm post-fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation with pumping over and punching down. Malolactic fermentation in tanks (75%) and barrels (25%). Merlots: vatting during 25-30 days. Cabernets Francs: vatting during 25-30 days.
Ageing
14 to 16 months in barrels. 60% in new French oak barrels.
Terroir
Area: 22 hectares in 1er Grand Cru Classé. Soil: Limestone plateau, clay-limestone hillsides, silicious at the slopes.
An offer on Château La Gaffelière 2021
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2021
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
This wine’s visuals are grouped in the media library. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 28, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.