2022 Clos Cantenac

Full of creamy blackberry and damson fruit, well judged waves of sage and rosemary, cracked pepper and smoked vanilla bean. Well balanced, fragrant and attractive. Good stuff. Owner Martin Krajewski, winemaker Charlotte Krajewski.

90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. The winemaking for the Clos Cantenac and Petit Cantenac is quite similar but the fruit comes from different parcel and the Clos Cantenac has a little more new oak at the end. Owner Martin Krajewski explains: 'the fruit is given a one-day cold soak at 7 ºC and then inoculated and then allowed to warm and at around 15 ºC the fermentation starts but it takes 3 or 4 days to reach 26/27 ºC – during that time and for the 1st third of the fermentation, the pumpovers were robust but not aggressive to avoid over extraction. The second third was gentle pumpovers and the last third nothing more than a cap wetting and after racking and pressing the wines were transferred into barrel for malo (plus one 7-hl amphora) all in 300-litre barrels, of which one-third were new. However, we picked the 6 hectares in 14 different passes last year, often picking just sections or the middle of a block ad then the perimeter where we know the vines/terroir well and what to expect and then keep the fruit through the first process separated in up to 8 to 10 different small to medium-sized steel cuves, plus we did 8 barrel intégrales. After racking at the end of March the blends were chosen and the wine racked back into barrels – 50% new for Clos and 40% new for Petit Cantenac. Barrel sample. Even darker than the Petit Clos with more purple at the rim. Concentrated intense sweet black fruit with more cassis than on the Petit Cantenac even though this has less of the Cabernets. That oak sweetness on the palate is even more marked than on the Petit Cantenac but here the freshness is really well balanced and the tannins are drier to give a better harmony with the fruit. Packed with fruit and then just slightly oaky on the finish. Like the Petit, a caressing wine. Good depth of fruit that stands up to the oak and suggestes a promising future. (JH)