Primeurs 2023
Château La Grâce Fonrazade
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Tasting Notes:
A deep, dark colour with purple highlights.
The fine, elegant nose opens the senses to aromas of wild blackberry and candied strawberry, with subtle notes of lightly toasted bread, vanilla and a touch of light tobacco rounding off the complex aromatic palette.
The attack is full, fresh, fleshy, of great intensity and richness, with a saline note.
Surprising tannins on the attack, with a round, sweet coating. The wine is creamy, with a silky, mineral texture. The ripe fruit is clearly present, accompanied by spicy notes. The wine’s complexity is the result of a meticulous blend of parcels from different geographical areas of the village of Saint-Emilion, demonstrating the positive influence of “marrying” south-west, west and north parcels of the village of Saint-Emilion with different terroirs.
The exceptional length of the finish reflects a wine which, at the end of the tasting, leaves aromatic traces of a vintage with beautifully ripe fruit. The tasting suggests that this 2023 vintage will keep us waiting for a while, but that the complementarity and complexity of the vintage will surprise us in a few years’ time.
Assemblage :
Harvesting:
We harvested after the rains between 25 and 29 September 2023 following some providential rainfall. The bunches literally changed after the rain! Yields were also in line with previous vintages at the estate.
More details on the “Climatology of the 2023 vintage” section.
PERSEVERO du
Château La Grâce Fonrazade
Tasting Notes:
A deep, intense red colour with violet highlights.
The nose is exuberant, dense, rich and sunny. The ripeness of the Merlot grapes expresses itself with blackberry and a touch of mocha… You can feel the complexity created by the 2 terroir profiles that make this blend possible, from plots to the south-west and south of the village of Saint-Emilion.
Roundness and elegance mark an extremely pleasant attack. The palate is almost sensual, with a sweetness that is often characteristic of this vintage. The sensation of velvetiness and balance is pleasant. The tannins, already melted, are benevolent and are accompanied by a rich aromatic palette of ripe red fruit, but not too ripe. The finish leaves a pleasant feeling of freshness and balance.
Assemblage :
Harvest Date:
We harvested after the rains between 20 and 27 September 2023 following providential rainfall. The bunches literally changed after this rain! Yields were also in line with previous vintages at the estate.
More details on the “Climatology of the 2023 vintage” section.
Grand Vin Blanc du
Château La Grâce Fonrazade
Tasting Notes:
Golden yellow colour.
The nose reveals a complex bouquet of dense, ripe, white-fleshed fruit, pear and exotic fruit, perhaps mango… This exotic predominance is the fruit of the ripe Sauvignon Gris grapes, with a light touch of aniseed and vanilla.
The palate is simple but rich, very complex, very full-bodied, with a hint of oak that goes hand in hand with a structure that is rare for a white wine. The heart of the tasting gradually opens up complex horizons, again with surprisingly crunchy, sweet exotic notes. The wine is dry, but what
roundness…
The finish is long and smooth.
Assemblage :
Château Argemonia
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
« DOMAINE DU CHÂTEAU LA GRÂCE FONRAZADE »
Tasting Notes:
The nose is exuberant and dense.
The ripeness of the Merlot expresses itself with redcurrant, while the Cabernet is barely noticeable on the nose except for its ripeness… Homogeneous and pleasant.
Elegant on the palate with a rich, structured attack. Dense and balanced with a velvety touch. The sensation of richness and balance is pleasant. The tannins are present but elegant, and are accompanied by an aromatic frieze of red fruit. The finish is long, marked by the density of the vintage and leaves the palate with a carpet of red fruit slightly marked by vanilla.
Spicy, built on a powerful, balanced base, the wine leaves a full, rich impression of ripe fruit on the palate.
Assemblage :
Harvest Date:
We harvested after the rains between 20 and 27 September 2023 following providential rainfall. The bunches literally changed after this rain! Yields were also in line with previous vintages at the estate.
More details on the “Climatology of the 2023 vintage” section.
Climatology of the 2023 vintage and its making of!
2023 was both a vintage of great heat, synonymous with great vintages in Bordeaux, preceded by a classic spring and a summer in which thunderstorms kept up the extraordinary pressure on the vineyards from criptogamic diseases, but at the same time limited the hydric stress on the plants.
This dry weather continued into August/September. The berries were therefore, on average, rather small. Despite the pressure, the overall health of the plants was largely satisfactory, with virtually no mildew spots on the leaves and a few bunches affected, depending on the sector.
The team’s perseverance in meeting the vineyard’s needs was remarkable.
Organic matter uptake was good, and the flowering was exemplary from an agronomic point of view in 2023.
Soil life was remarkable, given the rich biodiversity observed on the estate during the campaign. The notion of ‘life’ is very important in terms of the balance we bring to this question of soil life and what this implies in terms of the vines’ natural resistance..
Soil management was particularly complex in view of a spring that was marked by heavy rain
and ‘rapid’ drought. In the end, ploughing was carried out later than usual, albeit with great care to avoid weakening the soil’s biological and microbial activity. Leaf-thinning, which was carried out by hand, was practically halved so as not to over-stress the bunches, which had already been under a lot of pressure from the powerful sun.
The harvest was particularly “quick” in terms of our experience (31 campaigns…), and above all “close”, as for once there were only a few days’ difference between the harvests of our Saint-Emilion Grands Crus and our Côtes de Castillon. The harvest was a high-pressure affair, if we take into account the fact that waiting for promising rainfall was sometimes stressful in order to complete a ripening process that was sometimes slowed down by drought and intense sunshine, depending on the terroir. We harvested most of the vineyard after providential rains, and these rains enabled the grapes to reach full ripeness. The harvest was sorted by our 3 combined sorting tables, which did a remarkable job.
The diversity of our terroirs, spread across the Saint-Emilion commune, means that in 2023 we will once again be able to offer an astonishing complementarity of tannins, fruit and structure. The consistency of our wines across the vintages can be felt, with the origins of the grapes marked by totally complementary structures and maturities.
The 2023 vinifications were very regular and the fermentations went very well, even if some
vats attempted a rapid fermentation, which was slowed down thanks to our high-performance vat room. A ‘delicate’ extraction for the grapes from the plots harvested before the rains, and perfectly classic, temperate vinification for the magnificent grapes harvested after the expected rains.
The tannins are generally well-coated, with no rough edges. The blends of the first and second
wines are very promising, and we would remind you that the wines of Cht La Grâce Fonrazade will not be definitively blended until 24 months after ageing, so that each plot and type of terroir can receive barrel ageing adapted to its profile and character, with the origins of the wood and toast carefully selected.
