2009 de Chambrun
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Tasting notes
Bright red-ruby. Plum, toffee, smoky minerality and a hint of game on the nose. Lush, sexy and sweet, with dark fruit flavors complicated by a flinty quality. Solid acidity gives this wine good mid-palate verve and leavens its sweetness. Finishes with dusty, firm tannins. Good stuff: I'd wait three or four years before pulling the cork.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Wine Spectator
More reviews and scores
The 2009 Chambrun, cropped at 20 hectoliters per hectare, is a final blend of 94% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc that hit just over 14% natural alcohol. Bottled unfined and unfiltered by oenologist Michel Rolland, the wine possesses notes of chocolate fudge, blackberry jam, toasty oak, charcoal and graphite. A superb texture, a full-bodied mouthfeel and a terrific finish all make for a wine that should cost two or three times what this will fetch. Drink it over the next decade. These are two absolutely spectacular, over-achieving wines from Silvio Denz, who has managed to do the same brilliant work at St.-Emilion’s Chateau Faugeres and his Cotes de Bordeaux-Castillon property, Cap de Faugeres. There are two cuvees from this 21-acre vineyard planted on a clay and silex-like flinty soil over a deep bed of limestone.
Blueberries and chili on the nose. Full body, with velvety tannins and a juicy finish. The texture is beautiful to this wine. Try in 2015. James Suckling, jamessuckling.com
Fabulous aromas of crushed berry and blackberry, with hints of mineral and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, with soft, silky tannins and a clean, fresh finish. The is the third year of Silvio Denz's ownership of the estate, and it gets better and better. 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Cabernet Franc