CHÂTEAU KIRWAN
2016 3ème Cru Classé Margaux
55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot. Dark colour and darkly ripe fruit, good volume if not the greatest distinction. Still fresh - its black and broad but there's acidity on the finish. Drinking range: 2024 - 2035 Rating: 89-91 L&S (Apr 2017)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2016 Kirwan has an attractive, well-defined bouquet of blackberry, crushed violet and light crushed stone aromas that gently unfurls in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, a fine bead of acidity and a lightly spiced, peppery finish. I absolutely love this Margaux, and it should age with style. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting. Drinking range: 2023 - 2045 Rating: 91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Aug 2020)
One of the more finesse-driven examples of this cuvée that I can remember, the 2016 Château Kirwan offers up a medium ruby color to go with notes of smoke tobacco, gravelly minerality, graphite, and sweet cassis fruit. Medium-bodied, elegant and supple, if not a touch lean, it’s not a blockbuster but has outstanding purity and notable elegance. Drink it over the coming 15 years or so. Drinking range: 2019 - 2034 Rating: 90 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Feb 2019)
The 2016 Kirwan is a blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot picked up 49 hectoliters per hectare between 27 September until 18 October. The nose needed some encouragement from the glass, perhaps not quite as cohesive as I was expecting, angular black fruit with a dash of white pepper. It just felt rather broody and unsettled at this early stage. On the palate, I discerned some hardness on the tannin, rendering this a more masculine Kirwan that will hopefully flesh out once in bottle. With a new winery, I am anticipating great things from Kirwan. This might be a wine that will blossom later than others, so I will keep a watchful eye. Drinking range: 2023 - 2040 Rating: 89-91 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2017)
Dark purplish crimson. Some freshness on the nose with a hint of ink and pencils. A certain 'mineral' scent. A very slight green note but not bad at all, and certainly not forced. Real Margaux charm. Lift and pleasure in a dry idiom. Drinking range: 2026 - 2042 Rating: 17- Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2017)
Fresh and open in feel, with a caressing edge to the plum and cherry fruit, followed by light lilac and incense notes through the finish. Rating: 89-92 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2017)
A fresh and clean wine with currant and wet-earth character. Medium body and a medium finish. Rating: 88-89 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2017)
This is an effortlessly elegant and classy Margaux. Real structure where the tannins hold without being intrusive, close to the 2015 in quality. They have new cellars here, so lots to look forward to over the next decade as they really begin to benefit from the extra precision. Extremely classic Margaux, a great signature of the appellation. Drinking range: 2027 - 2050 Rating: 93 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2017)
Rating: 88 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2017)
Château Kirwan
Margaux Troisième cru 1855
The distinctively Irish name is derived from Mark Kirwan who, in 1751, married the daughter of Sir John Collingwood, who had purchased La Terre Noble de la Salle in 1710. Their Irish ancestory allowed the Kirwans to escape the worst privations of the Revolution and to emerge in the Napoleonic era bigger and better than before. Unusually for a Bordelais estate, the vineyard area at 37 hectares is unchanged since. Château Kirwan came into the hands of the Schÿler family in 1925, and they own it to this day.
Château Kirwan is in the village of Cantenac. The vineyards, with vines an average of 30 years old, are planted at 9000 vines per hectare with 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and an unusually high 8% Petit Verdot, planted on the classic Haut Médoc terroir of deep Pyrenean gravels up to six metres deep. Production is around 200,000 bottles, representing 40-45hl/ha. Picking is by hand, into small (6 kg) boxes for transport to the winery, where the grapes are double-sorted before fermentation in tulip-shaped concrete tanks, using selected yeasts and malolactic bacteria to ensure the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations happen simultaneously, over a period of 7 to 15 days at temperatures controlled not to exceed 25-26C. Pumping-over is used over the 18-25 day time in vat. The Grand Vin spends up to 18-21 months in barrel, of which around a third are new every year. The wines are racked every 3 or 4 months and fined with egg white.
Whilst not being among the cream of the Margaux crop, Château Kirwan is a steady producer and relatively good value. A tendency to slightly over-extracted fruit and lots of well-toasted oak has abated now that Eric Boissenot has taken over from Michel Rolland as consultant oenologist
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.