Château Meyney 2023

Critic scores

• James Suckling94
• Jeb Dunnuck94
• Vinous93
• Decanter93
• Wine Spectator91

The 2023 vintage in Saint-Estèphe

Vintage benchmark: 91/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: July mildew followed by a hot September demanded strict selection: fleshy, aromatic wines, more approachable than 2022.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Estèphe. 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

Meyney 2023 will offer delicacy, power and finesse.

Blend of the 2023 vintage

Cabernet Sauvignon (50%), Merlot (38%), Petit Verdot (12%)

Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2023 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot.

Figures from the 2023 sheet

• 13.5 % vol.Alcohol

Winemaking

Double-sorted harvest (in the vineyard and at the cellar). Gentle vinifications, adapted to each vat, to extract the best from it.

Ageing

18 months of ageing. French oak barrels.

Terroir

Cabernet Sauvignon draws on a perfectly drained terroir of siliceous gravels and, together with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, gives rise to a wine that is ample, fleshy and structured. At maturity it develops the inimitable charm of the great Saint-Estèphes. Across the estate's 43 hectares, the vines, averaging 40 years of age, are made up of Cabernet Sauvignon (61%), Merlot (26%), Cabernet Franc (3%) and Petit Verdot (10%). Besides the Garonne gravels of which it is composed, the vineyard has one distinctive feature: a 3-metre-thick seam of blue clay buried in the subsoil, also found at Pétrus.