2009 Château d'Armailhac, Pauillac, Bordeaux

2009 Château d'Armailhac, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Product: 20091006090
 
2009 Château d'Armailhac, Pauillac, Bordeaux

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Available by the case In Bond. Pricing excludes duty and VAT, which must be paid separately before delivery. Storage charges apply.
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Description

Lifted aromas of red and black fruits dominate the nose of the 2009 Ch. d’Armailhac. This is lighter in style than its other Mouton stablemates with proportionally more Merlot in the blend adding plummy fruit and ultra-fine, ripe, melting tannins. Make no mistake though, in time this will be a great little drinker.

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate90/100
The 2009 D'Armailhac has a medium to deep garnet color, and vibrant red and black fruit preserves, incense, earth and dried herbs all spring from the glass with a faint undercurrent of beef drippings. Medium-bodied, firm and chewy in the mouth, it has just enough maturing, savory fruit to fill the palate, with a lively line of freshness and an herbal lift on the finish.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 14/03/2019 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW16.5+/20
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Picked 23 Sep – 6 Oct. Very dark crimson. Inky and fragrant with just a hint of farmyard. Black cherries for the first time on the left bank! Less obviously ripe and supple than many 2009s on the nose but then on the palate there’s a sweet start and then a pretty chewy, slightly sinewy finish. Sweet and polished – not too much soul but an awful lot of effective artifice! Reasonably complete. More traditional tannin management than some. Fairly chunky.
Jancis Robinson MW - jancisrobinson.com - April 2010 Read more
Wine Spectator91-94/100
Love the minty, floral and dark berry aromas to this young wine. Full-bodied, with supe fine and polished tannins. Long and racy. Wonderful texture. Perhaps the best d'Armailhac ever. ...
James Suckling - Wine Spectator - April 2010 Read more
Robert Parker90-93/100
This may be the finest d'Armailhac I have ever tasted. Made in a textured, full-bodied, sumptuous style, it is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, and the balance primarily Cabernet Franc with a tiny dosage of Petit Verdo!. It exhibits a deep ruby/purple hue along with floral, red and black currant, cedar, and spice characteristics. Deep, medium to full-bodied, and impressively pure as well as long, it should drink well for 25 years.
Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - April 2010 Read more
Decanter17.5+/20
Dense purple red, lovely expression of ripe blackcurrant fruit, polished, classy, seductive and impressive, beautiful texture and length, totally charming Pauilac that will age well. Read more

About this WINE

Château d'Armailhac

Château d'Armailhac

Classified as a Fifth Growth in 1855, Château d’Armailhac came under the ownership of the Baron Philippe de Rothschild family in 1933. Today Baroness Philippine’s children, Camille and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild continue the family’s quest for excellence and innovation in the vineyard and winery.

The 76-hectare estate is managed alongside stablemates Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Clerc Milon; expertise is shared across the properties.

The south-facing vineyard is located in the northern part of Pauillac, adjacent to Château Mouton Rothschild, and is made up of deep, gravelly soil favoured by Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s no surprise, then, that this grape dominates the planting with the rest given over to Merlot (35%), Cabernet Franc (8%) and Petit Verdot (2%). The Cabernet Franc vines, which have an average age of 60 years, derived from ancestral massal selection, make up a relatively high proportion of the blend and are a hallmark of the wine. Harvesting is done by hand, and the grapes are sorted and destemmed.

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Pauillac

Pauillac

Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.

For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.

Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.

Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.

Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.

Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.

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Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.