2020 Anthologie de Marjosse, Cuvée Ortolan, Château Marjosse, Vin de France
About this WINE
Chateau Marjosse
Château Marjosse is a small Bordeaux property that is fast gaining a reputation as one of the region's bets value wines. It was bought in 1997 by the régisseur of Château Cheval Blanc, Pierre Lurton, a prominent member of the Bordeaux wine dynasty of the same name. In just 3 years he has earned the wines of Marjosse considerable, and much deserved, recognition.
Marjosse is located near the village of Tizac-de-Curton in the heart of the Entre-Deux-Mers region. Its consists of 9 hectares of vineyards, exceptionally well-sited on a clay and limestone plateau around 300 metres above seal level and planted with Merlot (60%), Cabernet Sauvignon (20%), Cabernet Franc (10%) and Malbec (10%). Pierre Lurton makes the wine in simply-equipped but marvellously functional, two hundred-year old cellars. It is still early days but the future looks very bright for Château Marjosse.
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc, it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard – it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St Émilion, where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils.
Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire, where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape’s herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgueil.
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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