2009 Clos Fourtet, St Emilion, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
It is ideal with a three-hour carafe.
Graceful and vibrant ruby colour, beautifully balanced, this is rich and expressive, with a ton of exuberant ripe fruit, enveloped by velvety textured tannins, with smoked bacon, grilled damson, cloves and baking spices of a warm year, all held in check by limestone fingerprints that bring it back into line every time it threatens to go too far. Nothing here is drying; the bitter black chocolate focuses on the finish. A flash of crème de cassis heat, but so much heart and drawn-out succulence. 80% new oak. Stephane Derenoncourt and Jean-Claude Berrouet consultants.
Drink 2023 - 2042
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (April 2023)
Tasted blind at Farr Vintners’ 2009 Bordeaux tasting.
The 2009 Clos Fourtet has a generous and opulent bouquet with red cherries, kirsch, fig and light mocha aromas that gently unfold, retaining admirable definition and poise. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, a fine bead of acidity, and a good structure. A more masculine, serious finish exerts impressive control. This is a classy Saint-Émilion with plenty of ageing potential.
Drink 2022 - 2042
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (March 2019)
The 2009 Clos Fourtet is medium to deep garnet colored and opens on a medicinal/Band-Aid note, giving way to appealing baked red and black fruit notes with touches of dried herbs, tree bark, chargrill and a ferrous waft. The palate is full-bodied with firm, chewy tannins and plenty of muscular fruit, finishing earthy and just a little hard.
Drink 2019 - 2035
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (March 2019)
88% Merlot. Hit by hail.
Tasted blind. Dark, youthful crimson. Sweet, gentle, well-balanced nose. Fairly lightweight but with great charm and balance. For classicists. This still has something to give. Impressive persistence. All in its place. Aromatic and dense.
Drink 2019 - 2035
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2019)
Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019.
Tons of black fruit, plenty of smoke and some balsamic character make a dramatic statement on the nose. On the palate there's rather sweet fruit at the front, then major tannins come through at the finish that still need time to fully resolve.
Better after 2022
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (March 2019)
After tasting it three times from bottle, I am convinced this prodigious wine is one of the greatest young Bordeaux I have ever tasted. Inky blue/purple with notes of camphor, forest floor, blackberry, cassis, sweet cherries, licorice, the wine has stunning aromatics, unctuous texture and an almost inky concentration, but without any hard edges. With considerable tannin and just enough acidity to provide definition, this wine transcends even its premier grand cru classe terroir. It is certainly the finest Clos Fourtet ever produced. Give it 5-7 years of cellaring to allow some of its baby fat to fall away. There is certainly enough structure underneath to keep for 30-50 years. Bravo!
From my barrel score of 95-98, I suppose I should have seen this perfect score coming, particularly considering what proprietor Philippe Cuvelier and estate manager Tony Ballu have accomplished over the last decade. This is one of the great terroirs of St.-Emilion, nearly 50 acres high on the clay beds and deep limestone plateau of the region, just a stone’s throw from the luxury hotel and restaurant Hostellerie de Plaisance. Yields were moderate at 34 hectoliters per hectare, and the final blend is 88% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon (somewhat unusual) and the rest Cabernet Franc, aged 18 months in 80% new oak.
Drink 2017 - 2067
Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (February 2012)
3.71pH
At one full degree of alcohol more than the 2003 (14.5), the 2009 exudes a polished nose with cool fruit, wild strawberry and hawthorn. It is not hot in any way. Indeed, the palate has a bit of steeliness, but in a good way: more poised and balanced than the 'hard metal' of the 2011. While delicious today (try with mushroom and sage stuffed hen and a truffle cream sauce), give it another 5-10 years for more appealing tertiary aspects. Long finish.
Drink 2023 - 2060
Panos Kakaviatos, Decanter.com (April 2023)
A blend of 88% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Cabernet Franc brought up in 80% new French oak.
The greatest Clos Fourtet I've ever tasted, eclipsing the heavenly 2005 and 2015, the 2009 Clos Fourtet offers an insane bouquet of black cherry and black currant fruits as well as loads of smoked tobacco, chocolate, liquorice, and toasted spices. It shows a touch of classic limestone-influenced white truffle with time in the glass and is as majestic as they come on the palate, with full-bodied richness, a seamless texture, beautiful tannins, and a monster of a finish. This magical Saint-Emilion can be enjoyed any time over the coming 30-40 years.
Drink 2020 - 2060
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (November 2020)
Bright, deep ruby. Slightly porty yet fresh on the hugely ripe nose, offering scents of medicinal cherry, minerals, liquorice and roasted meat. Plush, seamless and wonderfully deep, with sexy sweetness leavening by strong minerality. It is one of this fleshy vintage's fullest and most mouth-filling wines. It is not hugely complex- a bit youthfully monolithic today- but a wonderfully dense wine with fully ripe, sweet tannins and superb persistence.
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous.com (July 2012)
About this WINE
Clos Fourtet
Château Clos Fourtet is a St. Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé property located just outside the entrance to the town. It is distinguished by its beautiful ivy-covered manor house and some of the most extensive underground cellars in the region.
Clos Fourtet has had several owners over the years and underwent a mini-renaissance under the stewardship of the Lurtons in the latter half of the last century. Pierre Lurton was the winemaker who really established the property`s reputation as one of the finest on the St. Martin plateau. He left to become winemaker at Cheval Blanc and was replaced by Daniel Alard. In January 2001, Clos Fourtet was bought by Paris businessman Phillipe Cuvelier.
Clos Fourtet has 19 hectares of vineyards planted with Merlot (72%), Cabernet Franc (22%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (6%). The wine is vinified traditionally and is aged in oak barriques (60-70% new) for 18 months. It is bottled unfiltered.
St Émilion
St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank.
St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel.
Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol. Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.
In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices. The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.
St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012
Merlot
The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.
Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.
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Description
It is ideal with a three-hour carafe.
Graceful and vibrant ruby colour, beautifully balanced, this is rich and expressive, with a ton of exuberant ripe fruit, enveloped by velvety textured tannins, with smoked bacon, grilled damson, cloves and baking spices of a warm year, all held in check by limestone fingerprints that bring it back into line every time it threatens to go too far. Nothing here is drying; the bitter black chocolate focuses on the finish. A flash of crème de cassis heat, but so much heart and drawn-out succulence. 80% new oak. Stephane Derenoncourt and Jean-Claude Berrouet consultants.
Drink 2023 - 2042
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (April 2023)
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