2018 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

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Description

There's no one quite like Guillaume Pouthier. Pessac’s warmer climate allows him to use whole bunches (52% this year), and the wine is aged in new oak (75%), large oak (16%) and terracotta (9%). He prefers to age reductively. The result is unique but fabulous: a ripe but exceedingly floral nose, and brilliant vivacity with an almost tapenade note on the palate. For all the ripeness, the tannins are very positive but absolutely correct for the wine. Really impressive. Drink 2024-2040.

Blend: 37% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot

Colour Red

Sweetness Dry

Vintage 2018

Maturity Not ready (2034 - 2088)

Grape List Cabernet Franc (37%), Cabernet Sauvignon (34%), Merlot (29%)

Body Medium Bodied

Producer Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Critics reviews

Jane Anson MW 98/100

This powerful, full of complex layers of raspberry, blackberry, smoked earth, rosemary and turmeric spice, but running underneath it all is clear salinity and grip. The personality and poise of this wine overtakes the vintage, not an easy thing to do in a year that is as powerful as 2018 and on a warm site such as Carmes Haut-Brion. Touches of saffron and salt-licked as it opens, sage, freshly grilled dried herbs and gourmet espresso and brioche. Enjoyable. 3.62pH, and harvest at almost 1% ABV higher than you find in the final bottle. Ageing takes place in a mix of 25% new oak, 5% oak casks, and 10% amphoras, with 55% stems during fermentation, and natural yeasts.Drink 2025-2042jane_anson_mw, janeanson_com (Feb 2022)

Drink 2025 - 2042

Jane Anson MW, JaneAnson.com (Feb 2022)

About this wine

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard - it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St.Emilion where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils - Cheval Blanc is the most famous Cabernet Franc wine in the world, with the final blend consisting of up to 65% of the grape.

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Pessac-Léognan

In 1986 a new communal district was created within Graves, based on the districts of Pessac and Léognan. Pessac-Léognan has the best soils of the region, very similar to those of the Médoc, although the depth of gravel is more variable, and contains all the classed growths of the region. Some of its great names, including Ch. Haut-Brion, even sit serenely and resolutely in Bordeaux's southern urban sprawl.

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Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Château les Carmes Haut-Brion is a 10.3-hectare wine estate in Pessac-Léognan on the Left Bank of Bordeaux. The property was established over 400 years ago. It takes its name from the Carmelites, the order of monks that tended it for almost 200 years. Once a little-known neighbour of the world-famous Châteaux Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, things have changed rapidly here in recent years and it is today one of Bordeaux’s most exciting names. In 2010, the estate was acquired by Patrice Pichet, a French property developer. He quickly enlisted the dynamic Guillaume Pouthier as winemaker and director, and this has been a truly hot property ever since.

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