Chateau La Bastienne Montagne-St.-Emilion 2016
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Suckling
James -
Wong
Wilfred -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Beautiful ruby red color. Expressive of black fruits and sweets spices. Velvet smooth tannin structure followed by a very long aftertaste in mouth.
Blend: 100% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very rich blackberry and vibrant fruit aromas in the mulberry and dark-plum spectrum with a concentrated palate that offers a very fleshy and attractive set of supple fruit, framed in ripe, sturdy tannins.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The AOC of Montagne Saint-Émilion is sometimes overlooked by consumers as one of the best places to find values amongst Bordeaux and Bordeaux-styled wines. The 2016 Château La Bastienne is an excellent way to get acquainted with this Right Bank satellite secret. TASTING NOTES: This wine is on-point with its smooth textures, pretty red fruits, and light savory spices. Pair it with lightly spiced Pad Kra Pao. (Tasted: March 1, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 La Bastienne is medium to deep garnet-purple colored and features fragrant roses, oolong tea and baking spices scents with touches of warm plums, black cherries and raspberry pie. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with expressive red berry and floral layers with a fine-grained frame and long, lively finish.
Château La Bastienne, prestigious vineyard listed Premier Grand Cru Montagne, in 1928 was acquired by François Janoueix in the forties. It reaches now his best under the control of his grand-son Pierre-Emmanuel prompted by an extreme care of perfectionism in the development of the product to its highest quality.
Geographically situated on the west- southern slope of Lalande-de-Pomerol, La Bastienne is since 1632 known for its perfect geology for the wine growing. The 25 acres of vineyards are selected on the 34 acres of the exploitation, because of the clay-chalky soil of a soft slope which insures a natural drainage.
The planted grape varieties is 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc . The output of the 6000 stocks is reduced from 4200 to 4800 Liters per ha thanks to the natural grass growing, a cut of 8 buds of grapes per stock on two branches, a disbudding, the green harvests and two thinning out. The integrated winegrowing, the reduced anti-insects treatments insure the durability of the ecosystem of our vineyard.
At the occasion of harvesting of grapes called «Normandes», a 60 years old tradition was perpetuated by Pierre Janoueix till 2004, with those families who, like their ancestors, appreciate the Château La Bastienne for such a long time. No doubt, among the parents or grandparents of our grape pickers, some have met during harvesting of grapes in the past.
The harvest is manual, a meticulous selection is performed before the one-month vatting, in concrete tanks. Later, all the wine spends a year in French oak barrels. The wine is just sticked with eggwhite, in the ancestral method before the bottling. The choice of the corks is subject to special attention.
In most of France, wines are named by their place of origin and not by the type of grape (with the exception of Alsace). Just like a red Burgundy is by law, always made of Pinot noir, a red Bordeaux is a blended wine composed mainly of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Depending on the laws of the village from which the grapes come, the conditions of the vintage and decisions of the winemaker, the blend can be further supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and in rare cases, Carmenere. So popular and repeated has this mix of grape varieties become worldwide, that the term, Bordeaux Blend, refers to a wine blended in this style, regardless of origin.