CHÂTEAU PEDESCLAUX

2017 5ème Cru Classé Pauillac

EN PRIMEUR

65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. Quite a dark, mineral inflected nose. Very cool, poised fruit on the medium-bodied palate. Clean, precise and chiseled. This is chock full of latent energy. A stealth fighter of a wine that will be ready to deploy quite soon. Drinking range: 2022 - 2035 Rating: 90-92 L&S (Apr 2018)

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The 2017 Pédesclaux contains 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 25% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, the first time that all four grapes are in the final blend. It was cropped at 47hl/ha and contains 13.25° alcohol. It has a very harmonious bouquet, quite mineral driven with pencil lead and crushed stone infusing the black fruit that is one of the most precise that I have encountered in recent years. The palate is medium-boiled with fine grain tannin, quite precise and poised, the 50% new oak is nicely integrated with a finish that is fleet of foot. Very fine. Tasted twice with consistent notes. Drinking range: 2020 - 2036 Rating: 90-92 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (May 2018)

They have certainly continued to build up the feeling of serious weight and power at this property. It opens up carefully and consistently over ten minutes in the glass, with a clear focus on Cabernet flavours such as dark spice, blackcurrant berries and buds, liquorice and walls of slate. This wine is taking its place slowly but surely among the really good Pauillacs, and has managed to continue to make an impression in 2017. Drinking range: 2025 - 2038 Rating: 93 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2018)

The 2017 Château Pédesclaux checks in 65% Cabernet, 25% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot. It shows a perfumed, complex bouquet of black raspberries, spring flowers, forest floor, and violets. Incredibly floral, pure, elegant and seamless, with less density than the 2016, it's a beautiful wine from this estate that’s been on an upward trajectory since 2010. Rating: 92-94 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (Apr 2018)

Features a red currant and cherry core lined with chalky tannins. Shows floral lift and fresh acidity through the finish. Not big, but pure. Rating: 88-91 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2018)

There was between 7% and 10% frost damage declared at Pédesclaux, not surprising as although the château is located very near to the Gironde, the vineyard is one of the most parcellated in the region, with vineyards scattered all over the appellation. The frosted parcels were inland, of course. No second-generation fruit was included in the blends here. The picking was early, as expected, beginning on September 18th and finishing on the 29th. The blend of the grand vin is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 7% Cabernet Franc, which is a fairly typical blend for the estate. This is not as much Cabernet as some estates, but it reflects the vineyard. The team here are in the progress of replanting in order to improve and expand their Cabernet parcels. The alcohol is 13.25% and total acidity 3.5 g/l. I find a nose of confit blackcurrants here, as well as dark plums and damsons, very fresh and perfumed, The palate is bold, with a creamed fruit intensity, showing black violets and black plum substance, perfumed and with lovely integration. The tannins are tight, nicely grained, evident but not domineering, giving a fine grip to the palate, There is quite a lot of vanillin oak wrapping it up at the moment, but it is nothing I would consider inappropriate. It has harmony, a succulent polish, an elegant composition, as well as grip and potential. This has to be one of the better examples of Pédesclaux I have tasted. Rating: 92-94 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2018)

Fascinating visit here with the winemaker Catarina Freitas in 2012. Catarina showed us the map of the parcels which were owned by the property at the time that it was bought in 2009, and then two others, showing how, by purchases and swaps, they has vastly reduced the number of parcels and are consolidating the vineyard.

This was also where we first saw Alessandro Masnaghetti's maps of the area, which is a fascinating insight into where all these wines actually come from.

Catarina explained that as a result of the strength of the co-operative movement in Saint Estèphe and northern Pauillac, properties passed down though families often got split into tiny plots. The previous owner, in a rush to expand the surface area, bought what he could. Sometimes this was just a couple of rows of vines in the middle of someone else's vineyard. This made vineyard management harder, and also made it difficult to see clearly what they had at vinification - it was impossible to vinify every tiny bit separately.

Winemaking includes pre-fermentary cold maceration that can last up to an astonishing fifty days. Like properties such as Charmail, they tried using dry ice to cool the harvest so as to make sure the fermentation did not start, but from 2011 on they are using a new method, which I have not come across anywhere before, which is to hold the harvested grapes in a cold room at 3C for twenty-four hours before beginning the egrappage and final sortings and putting them into vats.

We were also shown the proposed new winery, which will use the natural slope of the built part of the property down to the Gironde. It will be built into the hill and use gravity thoughout to avoid pumping. Make no mistake, there intent is very serious here and its a name to look out for.

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