2019 Petit Cantenac, St Emilion, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
The 2019 Petit Cantenac is fragrant and understated on the nose; brambly black fruit mixed with briary gives way to slightly floral scents, pastille-like purity emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit and a zingy salinity. Becoming evermore peppery with aeration, it does not impress in terms of weight but succeeds in delivering a fresh and vivacious Saint-Émilion with joie-de-vivre.
Drink 2023 - 2030
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (June 2020)
The 20% Cabernets in the Petit Cantenac come through very clearly, giving a more highly spiced attack than the Clos Cantenac. Tons of personality and exceptionally carefully handled, this feels precise and well balanced with firm tannins. Less exuberant than the 1st wine, with attractive coffee and mocha notes on the finish.
Drink 2023 - 2032
Jane Anson, Decanter.com (May 2020)
Medium to deep garnet-purple in colour, the 2019 Petit Cantenac has pretty, open-knit scents of kirsch, black raspberries and boysenberries with touches of bouquet garni, dusty soil and black olives. The medium-bodied palate has plenty of lively black and red fruits with invigorating herbal accents and an earthy undercurrent on the chewy finish.
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate (June 2020)
About this WINE
Clos Cantenac
Clos Cantenac is a 3 hectares wine property with vines planted on a combination of deep gravel, sand and clay over limestone soils.
It is situated close to the pre-historic "Megalith de Pierrefitte" in the Saint Emilion wine appellation and it was purchased in 2007 by Martin Krajewski, the owner of Chateau de Sours. The property is is run by Krajewski on the helm along with wine enthusiast Marcus Le Grice from New Zealand and Sebastien Lamothe, Oenologist and Technical Director of Chateau de Sours.
St-Emilion
St Emilion 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 Emilion 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 Emilion, 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 Emilion 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
Cab.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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Description
The 2019 Petit Cantenac is fragrant and understated on the nose; brambly black fruit mixed with briary gives way to slightly floral scents, pastille-like purity emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit and a zingy salinity. Becoming evermore peppery with aeration, it does not impress in terms of weight but succeeds in delivering a fresh and vivacious Saint-Émilion with joie-de-vivre.
Drink 2023 - 2030
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (June 2020)
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