2016 Château La Gaffelière, St Emilion, Bordeaux

2016 Château La Gaffelière, St Emilion, Bordeaux

Product: 20168124315
 
2016 Château La Gaffelière, St Emilion, Bordeaux

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Description

The 2016 La Gaffelière has a more savoury, perchance more Cabernet Franc–driven bouquet, but one that is well defined, with cedar and sandalwood notes judiciously tucked behind the brambly red fruit. The medium-bodied palate offers supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Fleshy and generous, yet displaying fine backbone and good persistence on the finish. A Saint-Émilion that has finally found its groove. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

Drink 2023 - 2040

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (August 2020)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous93/100

The 2016 La Gaffelière has a more savoury, perchance more Cabernet Franc–driven bouquet, but one that is well defined, with cedar and sandalwood notes judiciously tucked behind the brambly red fruit. The medium-bodied palate offers supple tannins and a fine bead of acidity. Fleshy and generous, yet displaying fine backbone and good persistence on the finish. A Saint-Émilion that has finally found its groove. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

Drink 2023 - 2040

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (August 2020)

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Antonio Galloni, Vinous96/100

The 2016 La Gaffelière is superb. Vivid and precise, with layers of nuance, the 2016 is a wine of real clarity. Blood orange, lavender, rose petal and mint add brightness to this stunningly beautiful Saint-Émilion. La Gaffelière is a blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, and it is the Franc that gives the wine so much character and complexity. This is just an irresistibly captivating Saint-Émilion. Stéphane Derenoncourt and Simon Blanchard consult.

Drink 2024 - 2051

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (January 2019)

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Jane Anson96/100

70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc.

This was delicious En Primeur and is even better now with three years under its belt. It's had time to bed down and is fully set for the long term. Wonderfully rich, intense dark fruits are joined by grip and supple tannins through the palate. It has hints of dark chocolate and a floral edge from the Cabernet Franc. Be in no rush to open this, because it's clearly going to deliver over the next few decades. As of this vintage, we are seeing the blend that the estate hopes to maintain.

Drink 2025 - 2044

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (March 2019)

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Wine Advocate95+/100

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 La Gaffeliere opens with compelling wild blueberries, freshly crushed plums and kirsch scents plus hints of garrigue, underbrush, rose hip tea and pencil lead. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wonderfully elegant with a soft, velvety texture and seamless freshness carrying the multilayered fruit to a long finish.

Drink 2021 - 2045

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate (November 2018)

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Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20

70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc.

Still a youthful, crimson hue. Aromatically less precise with briary, dark-fruit notes but the palate is poised and harmonious. Lighter hand on the tiller compared with 2014 and 2015, the tannins and fruit are more refined and there’s plenty of freshness, too. Clean and long with drive on the finish.

Drink 2023 - 2036

James Lawther, JancisRobinson.com (October 2022)

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James Suckling96/100

A blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc. 

This is really decadent and rich with great aromas of earth, spice, frostflowers and fresh mushrooms that follow through to a full body, firm and chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Very, very serious from here.

Try after 2025

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2019)

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About this WINE

Chateau La Gaffeliere

Chateau La Gaffeliere

Château La Gaffelière is owned by Léo de Malet Roquefort, and the 22 hectare property produces on average 10,000 cases per year. Located in the centre of the St. Emilion appellation, due south of St. Emilion town, the property shares a similar climate to that enjoyed by both St.Emilion and Pomerol: more continental than the maritime Médoc, with generally more spring rainfall, though less in summer and winter.

La Gaffeliere's vineyards (Cabernet Sauvignon 5%, Merlot 65%, Cabernet Franc 30%) lie on a sloped sandy/clay-limestone topsoil and limestone subsoil (a mix of Côtes and Pieds de Côtes). Fermentation takes place in stainless steel followed by extended wood maturation, with 33% of the barells being renewed annually.

La Gaffeliere is classified as a 1er grand cru classé(B).

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St Émilion

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

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Merlot

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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