Domaine de Courteillac 2016

The Domaine de Courteillac is located on the highest part of the Entre Deux Mers plateau, southeast of Saint-Emilion after crossing the Dordogne. Its owner, Dominique Meneret comes from a family strongly linked to the wine industry and, not in vain, they have owned Saint Emilion. His first professional activity was as a businessman in the place de Bordeaux, specializing in Crus Classés, but in 1998 he acquired the Domaine de Courteillac from Stephane Asseo when he decided to make the Americas and found the LAventure winery in California. This small property of the maligned AOC Bordeaux Superieur is a magnificent example of the search for suitable plots for Bordeaux varieties (70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc) in an area vilified by so many producers, and a paradigm of meticulous workmanship. Not surprisingly, the soil from which the Domaine de Courteillac grapes are obtained is a perfect combination of clays, limestones and gravels on a fundamentally limestone subsoil, structurally similar to that of the best terroirs in Saint-Emilion. With the help in the early years (1998-2006) of Michel Rolland and, since 2007 with the advice of Stephane Derononcourt, winemaking prioritizes elegance and finesse over power. They look for fruit at its point of maturity and respect it to the maximum in a winery totally redesigned in 2000, with a room of 450 barrels, a third of which are renewed every year, an unusual effort at AOC Bordeaux Superieur. The result? A wine with character, fruity expression, balanced and with sweet tannins that can be drunk with pleasure in its fifth year after the harvest and that does not require you to sacrifice your pocket to drink a good wine with Bordeaux character.