2017 Fonbadet
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2017 Fonbadet is plush, sumptuous and super-expressive, with no hard edges and plenty of immediacy. Blue and purplish fruit, menthol, licorice, lavender, spice and leather are all front and center. Readers will find a creamy, textured Pauillac built on fruit presence and juiciness. Best of all, the 2017 can be enjoyed without much fuss pretty much upon release. I loved it. Tasted two times.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Fonbadet is composed of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, aged for 18 months in French oak, 40% new. Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, it comes bounding out of the glass with expressive Flack Forest cake, blueberry coulis and redcurrant jelly scents backed up by suggestions of rosehip tea, forest floor, potpourri and mossy tree bark. Medium-bodied, the palate is elegant, juicy and refreshing, with bags of nuanced black and red berry flavors and a perfumed finish. Yum!
The 2017 Fonbadet shows just a very small reduction on the nose, although this blows off to reveal an attractive blackberry, briary and a slightly honeyed aroma. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins that frame the cedar and graphite infused black fruit. Whilst not quite displaying the breeding of the 2018, this 2017 is a fine Fonbadet that will give a decade’s worth of drinking pleasure.
Made by the same team as Chateau Pauillac, the 2017 Chateau Fonbadet offers classy notes of blackcurrants, leafy herbs/tobacco, damp earth, and underbrush. Based on 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, brought up 40% new French oak, it's a medium-bodied, elegant wine with lively acidity, present, ripe tannins, and solid overall balance. Drink it any time over the coming 10-15 years. Tasted twice.