Chateau Cambon La Pelouse Haut-Medoc Cru Bourgeois Superieur 2005
-
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate
Barrel Sample: 88-90 Points
Professional Ratings
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Other Vintages
2009-
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Enthusiast
-
Robert
Parker
Cambon la Pelouse is located in Macau, between Chateau Giscours and Chateau Cantemerle, just outside the Margaux appellation. The estate is rich in history, changing hands many times over the past few centuries.
The property was originally the Seigneury of Lapelouze, owned by the sire of Antiège, the adviser and secretary of the king. He sold it to Jean de Cambon-Lapelouze in the late 1600’s. During the French Revolution, the estate was seized as a national property, but then returned to Jean de Cambon-Lapelouze. After Jean’s death, the estate was inherited by his only daughter, Coralie. After more changes in ownership, a crippling frost in 1956 and replantings in the 1970’s, the estate was sold to Annick and Jean-Pierre Marie, owners of Château Trois Moulins.
Annick and Jean-Pierre Marie have made great investments and renovations in the property. In 2001 they added an effluent treatment plant, and in 2009, the winery began converting its vineyards to sustainable & organic farming. Today the vineyard is farmed under the "culture raisonnee" method - hand-harvesting, pruning, thinning out of the leaves, green harvesting and destemming ensures the perfect quality of the grapes.
Cambon la Pelouse covers 149 acres (60 hectares), with wines averaging 30 years old. The winery produces Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc & Petit Verdot. The soil is made of fine and larger gravel from the quaternary period. Wines are crafted under ‘viticulture master’ Guillaume Levasseur and winemaker Olivier Pascaud.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
One of the most—if not the most—famous red wine regions of the world, the Medoc reaches from the city of Bordeaux northwest along the left bank of the Gironde River almost all the way to the Atlantic. Its vineyards climb along a band of flatlands, sandwiched between the coastal river marshes and the pine forests in the west. The entire region can only claim to be three to eight miles wide (at its widest), but it is about 50 miles long.
While the Medoc encompasses the Haut Medoc, and thus most of the classed-growth villages (Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe) it is really only those wines produced in the Bas-Medoc that use the Medoc appellation name. The ones farther down the river, and on marginally higher ground, are eligible to claim the Haut Medoc appellation, or their village or cru status.
While the region can’t boast a particularly dramatic landscape, impressive chateaux disperse themselves among the magically well-drained gravel soils that define the area. This optimal soil draining capacity is completely necessary and ideal in the Medoc's damp, maritime climate. These gravels also serve well to store heat in cooler years.