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Chateau Arnauld

2018
Blend
52% Cabernet Sauvignon
20% Merlot
10% Petite Verdot
Country
France
Region
Bordeaux
Appellation
Haut-Medoc
UPC
0 15643 48235 9
Red Wine
Verified Stock
12446-18
Product Ratings
Decanter 95pt

Scented floral and dark chocolate aromas. Ripe and juicy, a lovely lifted element. Easy to drink, supple, concentrated, refined and long.

by Decanter, 2023
Decanter Wine Awards 96pt

Gold Medal Decanter World Wine Awards

by Decanter Wine Awards, 2021
James Suckling 92pt

Very pretty blackberry and orange-peel aromas follow through to a medium body with lovely, delicious fruit and fine tannins. Fresh and clean. Firm backbone.

by James Suckling, 2021
Wine Enthusiast 92pt

This ripe, juicy wine comes from a vineyard planted around a medieval priory. The wine has spice, ripe tannins and attractive black-currant and red-berry fruits. The winning combination should age well.

by Wine Enthusiast, 2021

Tasting notes

Very nice deep ruby color, dazzling. Nose of black cherry, salted caramel, gingerbread. Full and indulgent on the palate with notes of brioche. Very nice impression of sweetness. Harmonious and generous overall, ending with an elegant and smooth finish.
To be decanted 2 hours before tasting
Enjoy from now until 2023-2028

Vintage

After a rather mild winter without too much rain and a cool start to spring, bud burst started at the beginning of April and was drawn out because of the cool temperatures and a lack of water. This was followed by a very long period of drought from the beginning of May until the middle of veraison, leading to fears for the yield because at the start of veraison the berries were very much smaller than normal (at least 20 to 30%). As from mid veraison, very wet weather followed up until harvest, with cumulative rainfall from July to the end of October of 263.5 mm, an abnormally high quantity not seen in recent years. The berries became larger as from the end of veraison, returning to their normal size.

Description

Two great experts of the terroir, Franck Bijon and Hubert de Boüard, were the driving force behind the renaissance Château Arnauld, purchased in 2007. Franck Bijon identified the potential of 5 hectares along the river’s edge, then selected other exceptional parcels one by one to create an estate of 17.2 hectares of great homogeneity which is now classified Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel.

State of the art technology allows a better understanding of the living raw material and raises it to new heights. Since 2009 it has never failed to amaze those who taste it, and many see in it a potential new “great name”. It is the kind of wine that is best appreciated eyes closed, reconciling intensity and smoothness in a virtuoso expression of the great legends of the Medoc.

Vinification

100% manual harvest with sorting on the vine and two sortings before destemming on harvest conveyor.
100 new barrel ageing for 16 to 18 months.

Vineyard

- 17 hectares of vines
- Soil : a deep layer of Quaternary Gunzian gravel on the Arcins plateau, near the Gironde estuary, which moderates weather conditions here
- Planting density : 10 000 vines per hectare.
- Average age of vines: 40 years old.