CLOS FOURTET [ST EMILION] 2019 750ML

Starts out slowly, this is well built and muscled, and has no desire to show its hand too quickly. Instead the concentrated yet cooling cassis and blueberry fruits build ever so slowly, the tannins lightly etched at first then tightening their grip. An excellent Clos Fourtet, up there with the brilliant 2018, and one that shows off the full potential of this excellent property to withstand the hot dry summers that are becoming so common in Bordeaux. A yield of 38hl/ha.

The 2019 Château Clos Fourtet is another gem from the Right Bank that delivers the goods. From the upper, limestone plateau and always a bigger, richer wine than its neighbors (Canon, Beau-Séjour Bécot), it still shows incredible minerality and limestone character in its deep black cherry, currant, and mulberry fruits as well as scorched earth, chalky minerality, roasted herb, licorice, and white flower-like aromas and flavors. Rich, full-bodied, concentrated, and structured on the palate, it's flawlessly balanced, has ripe, broad, building tannins, an expansive mouthfeel, and a great, great finish. It needs a decade of bottle age, but it’s truly brilliant stuff.

Lots of purple fruit with white pepper and crushed stones in the nose. It’s full-bodied, yet tight and poised with a very chalky and salty undertone to the purple fruit. Flavorful finish. Linear and long. Try after 2026.

This is a ripe and structured wine that has a dense structure and concentrated blackberry fruit, yet it still shows the freshness typical of the vintage. It has an excellent long-term aging potential.

Attractive aromas of wild berries, pencil shavings, vine smoke, black truffle and violets introduce the 2019 Clos Fourtet, a medium to full-bodied, deep and seamless wine with a concentrated core of fruit, beautifully refined tannins and lively acids, concluding with a long, saline finish. Elegant and complete, this is a brilliant wine from this 19-hectare vineyard situated on the limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion, just outside the village, which has been on a qualitative roll since the 2001 vintage.

The 2019 Clos Fourtet has a beautifully defined bouquet of vivacious red berry fruit, wild hedgerow, cassis and crushed violets, intense at the moment, and yet I think this is going to close down. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, blackberry, a touch of tar, and a pinch of white pepper on a finish that fans out gloriously. A long-term prospect.