2009 Tour Saint Bonnet, Médoc, Bordeaux, France, En Primeur Ltd, UK Wine Merchant

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2009 En Primeur

Wine Lists

2009 Tour Saint Bonnet (Case of 12)

France, Bordeaux, Red

£75.00

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Tour Saint Bonnet, Médoc, Bordeaux

Country:	France
Region:	Bordeaux
Appellation:	Médoc
Colour:	Red
Vintage:	2009

Size:	BT (75cl)
RP/WA:	88-90*
Available:	In bond

Grape variety: 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot

Tasting Notes:

This has been one of the most reliable wines in Bordeaux over the last 30+ years, and I have enjoyed many vintages of it. It sells for a song, and the 2009 may turn out to be the best they have ever made. This inky purple-colored wine offers up notes of creme de cassis, spring flowers, and forest floor that seem to have more in common with a classified growth than a petite chateau. Medium-bodied, luscious, and rich, this is a beauty to drink over the next 10 years. (Tasted two times.)

Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (188)

Tasting notes
Grape variety
The appellation
Vintage Overview

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45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot

Cabernet Sauvignon:
Despite being so prominent in the winemaking industry, the origins of this variety were shady up until the 1990s. Prior to this, many felt that the variety was ancient origin – perhaps even the Biturcia grape used to make ancient Roman wine. However, these romanticised and altogether dubious origins were placed on the shelf when DNA typing, undertaken by the UC David Department of Viticulture and Enology, determined that Cabernet Sauvignon was the offspring of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc – most probably due to a chance crossing in the 17th century.

Cabernet Sauvignon can grow in various different climates and soil types – in fact the wine usually gives a sense of the terroir in the taste. Naturally prone to vigorous yields, winemakers must be careful not to compromise the quality of the wine. Practices such as using less vigorous rootstock, green harvesting and aggressive pruning of grape clusters ensure lower yields.

This variety is most famously found in Bordeaux blends and thrives on the gravelly soils of the Medoc, being both well drained whilst also radiating heat to the vines. However, internationally varietals are very common – especially in warmer climates.

Merlot:
Used for both blending and varietal wines, Merlot is the foremost grape in the Bordeaux. Merlot wines usually have a medium body with hints of berry, plum and currant. Its softness and fleshiness, combined with earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, with its higher tannin levels. Its name comes from the Occitan word “merlot” which means “young blackbird” – a nod towards the grape’s beautiful dark-blue colour. An offspring of Cabernet Franc (and therefore a sibling of Cabernet Sauvignon), it was first mentioned in 1784 where a labelled wine made from the grape attracted praise from all quarters.

The grape can easily be identified by its loose bunches of large, plump grapes. The colour is less or a blue/black hue than Cabernet Sauvignon and it has a thinner skin, with correspondingly fewer tannins. Pruning has a massive impact on the outcome of the wine, with reduced yields giving higher quality wine. Merlot has a propensity to quickly over ripen after hitting its initial ripeness level, sometimes in a matter of a few days. The renowned Chateau Petrus favours early picking to ensure acidity and ageing potential, while other growers favour late picking and the added fruitiness that comes with the additional ripeness of the fruit.

Merlot is now the most commonly grown grape in France, which claims two thirds of the world’s total Merlot cultivation.

Malbec:
At one point Malbec was more popular in the Medoc region than Cabernet Sauvignon. Many of the great clarets of the 1800’s lasted well into the 1900’s – proof positive that Malbec has massive quality potential. However, its susceptibility to coulure, downy mildew and frost meant that it became increasingly unpopular. In 1956 a terrible frost wiped out a huge proportion of Malbec varieties in Bordeaux, allowing many growers to start a new with different, hardier varieties. Today it is most easily found in Cahors where AOC regulations stipulate that Malbec must compose at least 70 percent of the blend (with Merlot and Tannat rounding out the remaining percentage).

The variety has had a better lot in Argentina where it has become something of a “national variety” – the Argentine clone having smaller berries in smaller, tighter clusters. This may suggest it is descended from a clone that was wiped out in France during the phylloxera epidemic. The Argentine Malbec offers a plusher texture than the more rigid French Malbec, but offers similar ageing potential.

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Petit Verdot

Petit Verdot is thought to be native to western Bordeaux, likely present in the Médoc well before Cabernet Sauvignon and probably more prevalently grown. Plantings are sparse today but where it is grown, the variety’s contribution is significant.

In Bordeaux Petit Verdot is confined to the left bank of the Gironde, where the deep gravel soils are warmer than the clay soils of the right bank. It ripens extremely late, after Cabernet Sauvignon, and in cool years may not ripen at all, or only irregularly. Wet growing seasons also work to its disadvantage. Hardy but not prolific, the Petit Verdot vine produces small, spherical, thick skinned berries of intense blue-black color, high in tannin, alcohol, acidity and phenolics, or flavoring elements.

In the Médoc, in those properties where it is planted at all, it usually represents less than ten percent of the vines. Its grudging cooperation in the vineyard is likely why it is not more prevalent, since it is an excellent contributor of color, structure, fragrance and fruit density, though it lacks finesse. On its own, in warmer climates, it yields a dark, firmly structured, tannic wine of superb acidic balance with full, fresh, spice, pepper and black fruit flavors and aromas offset by an impression of violets. Also grown in Italy, Spain, California, Australia, Chile and Argentina.

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Decanter: Steven Spurrier, Decanter.com, 15.5 pts - "Good plummy cassis Médoc, good succulent fruit, good future. Drink 2012-16."

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The name ‘moulis’ derives from the French for windmills or “moulins”. Like the Listrac appellation the nearby pine forest serves as a ward against the prevailing winds. However, unlike Listrac wines those produced here have a silkier and less tannic quality. As a result Moulis wines can be drunk earlier than is typical in the Medoc. The soils compose of a series of gravel terraces with segments of silt and limestone.

Though the commune has no classed growth properties, the fine Cru Bourgeois estate of Chateau Poujeaux gives rise to wines of staggering quality. Another flagship of this all too easily overlooked region is Chateau Chasse-Spleen, which also produces wines that belie its underdog status.

Soil: Three layers of gravel over a base of limestone. Clay can also be found.
Size: 550 hectares
Output: approx 4,200,000 bottles a year.
Type of wine produced: Smooth, velvety reds
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc

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Vintage Overview

A truly phenomenal year for the Left Bank, where the dominant, late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon really flourished in the warm, dry climate. The softer, more alcoholic Merlot had less success on the Left Bank (with some growers finding themselves with 15.5% alcohol wines), but still enjoyed a fantastic year – 2009 really is about degrees of success, rather than hits or misses. However, if the Right Bank needed fine-tuning to achieve perfection, the Right Bank has it in spades:

“The finest 2009 left bank reds managed to be unequivocally Bordeaux - no "Napa Valley" or "New Worldy" in the tasting notes - while harnessing 2009's exceptional natural bounty: a dry, warm-but-not-scorching summer that lasted until mid-September when a downpour revitalised vines that were on the point of suffering from the prolonged drought. This was followed by another long, unusually fine period.” – Jancis Robinson, MW.

Jancis Robinson wrote that “The perfect 2009 red bordeaux - and there are many of them, at all levels and from virtually all appellations - are exceptionally luscious and were an absolute delight to taste, but still have that quintessentially Girondin raciness, appetising quality, capacity to age and imprint of terroir that distinguishes the best of them from Cabernets, Merlots and Bordeaux blends produced elsewhere” adding also with respect to the top wines in particular..” I have never given so many really high scores when tasting en primeur anywhere..”

"It may turn out to be the finest vintage I have tasted in 32 years of covering Bordeaux.” - Robert Parker

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