2018 Château de Pez, St Estèphe, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
1% Cabernet Franc finishes the blend. 3.65pH.
Roederer no longer owns Beausejour, so this is now their only estate in St-Estèphe, where they are currently building a new winery. The 2018 is highly appealing, with rich plum fruits and firm but flexible tannins. You get the slightest trace of heat, but the evident concentration is well-handled and has a gourmet edge. This is an excellent choice for drinking a little earlier than others in the appellation.
Drink 2024 - 2036
Jane Anson, Decanter.com (April 2019)
The 2018 Château de Pez was shut when I tasted it from cask with winemaker Nicolas Glumineau, so much so that I felt it was inappropriate to score it because I felt there was a great wine lurking behind that door. And so it turned out. Now in bottle, this has a gorgeous bouquet of lifted blackberry, graphite and flinty aromas, razor-sharp in terms of delineation. The palate is beautifully balanced with fine-grained tannins and a subtle marine influence that becomes more prominent with aeration. The oak is wonderfully integrated, and the focus is very finished. This is one of the best Château de Pez that I have tasted, but it clearly needed to wait until it was in bottle to show its potential.
Drink 2023 - 2040
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (March 2021)
The 2018 de Pez is even more impressive from bottle than it was from barrel. Time has given the Pez gorgeous finesse, softening the contours, to match the natural radiance of the year. Silky tannins wrap around a core of inky red/purplish fruit, pipe tobacco, cedar, mint, spice and leather. The en primeur sample was decidedly flashier, but then again, that wine was presented in 100% new oak. The finished wine, with one-third of each new, one-year-old and two-year-old barrels, is wonderfully refined and poised.
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (March 2021)
A blend of 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, the deep garnet-purple coloured 2018 de Pez leaps from the glass with vibrant black cherries, ripe blackberries and blackcurrant pastilles notes, giving way to nuances of black olives, lavender and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate offers nicely rounded tannins and a lively backbone to counter the bold fruit, finishing savory.
Drink 2023 - 2038
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (March 2021)
49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot.
Black core to narrow crimson rim. Some charry sweetness as well as the blackest of fruits. The tannins are the most grippy of this line-up of St-Estèphes but this may be also because the acidity seems higher. Dry, chewy and all to play for.
Drink 2028 - 2038
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (October 2020)
Spices and dark berries with some nutmeg and cedar. Medium to full body, really polished tannins and a refined and pretty finish. So fine. Tight yet balanced. Give it three or four years to open.
Try after 2023
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (August 2021)
The blend is 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot, and the balance is Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
From the team of Nicolas Glumineau at Pichon Comtesse de Lalande, the 2018 Château De Pez is a gorgeous 2018 that should be on every Bordeaux lover's radar (and should be a great value as well). Notes of blackcurrants, blueberries, candied violets, and graphite define the bouquet, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, rockingly polished tannins, terrific purity, and a great finish. It's terrific and is going to have 15-20 years or more of longevity.
Drink 2021 - 2041
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (November 2021)
About this WINE
Chateau De Pez
Château De Pez dates back to the 15th century but the first vines were planted in 1749 by the de Pontac family who also owned Châteaux Margaux and Haut-Brion. De Pez was purchased in 1920 by Jean Bernard and for many years was owned and managed by his nephew, Robert Dousson. Recently it was acquired by the Champagne house Louis Roederer.
De Pez's 23-hectare vineyard is planted with 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot. The grapes are hand picked and vinified in wooden vats. The wine is then matured in small oak barriques (25% new) for 18 months. The wine is bottled unfiltered.
De Pez produces rounded, ripe and mouthfilling clarets which can be slow to evolve. The best vintages require 7-10 years to reach optimum maturity.
Saint-Estèphe
Saint-Estèphe is the northernmost of the most important communes of the Médoc and borders Pauillac on its southernmost border, with only a gully and stream separates it from Ch. Lafite. To the north lies the Bas-Médoc.
Saint-Estèphe is defined by the depth of its gravel, which is ubiquitous but of varying depths and occasionally very shallow, when clay predominates. This keeps the soil cooler and wetter than its counterparts so that the wines can appear fresh in lighter vintages, but superbly successful in hot, dry years.
The best châteaux in the south of the commune have the deepest soil and the thickest gravel. Cos d'Estournel has an exceptional terroir with its vineyards being located on a south-facing ridge of gravel with excellent drainage.
Saint-Estèphe is the least gravelly of main Médoc communes and in the north of the commune the vineyards are heavier and more clay-based leading to a rustic style of wine being produced.
The wines can appear austere in youth with a discernable ferric note at some châteaux, but the best typically display good depth of colour, pronounced acidity an tannins in youth and are exceptionally long-lived. At their best, they are the equal of almost any Bordeaux. The well-regarded St Estèphe co-operative controls the production of about half the appellation.
Recommended Châteaux
Cos (Ch. Cos d'Estournel), Ch. Montrose, Ch. Calon-Ségur, Ch. Lafon-Rochet, Ch. Les Ormes de Pez, Ch. Beau-Site, Ch. Cos Labory, Ch. Phélan-Ségur
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.
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.
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Description
The blend is 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Merlot, and the balance is Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
From the team of Nicolas Glumineau at Pichon Comtesse de Lalande, the 2018 Château De Pez is a gorgeous 2018 that should be on every Bordeaux lover's radar (and should be a great value as well). Notes of blackcurrants, blueberries, candied violets, and graphite define the bouquet, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, rockingly polished tannins, terrific purity, and a great finish. It's terrific and is going to have 15-20 years or more of longevity.
Drink 2021 - 2041
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (November 2021)
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