Château Cap de Faugères 2015

Convinced already? Cut to the chase and buy a bottle here.

• 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
• Dominated by ripe lush dark fruits like blackberry, black cherry & plum with chocolate overtones. Some bramble and blackcurrant leaf with mint. Hints of red plum, strawberry and black pepper. Cedar and vanilla from the oak aging. Full bodied, medium-plus ripe tannins and medium-plus acidity with a long length. 14.5 % ABV.
• Drink from now until 2030
• Good varietal definition, complexity and length which means a very enjoyable wine indeed.
• The owner of this vineyard is also the proprietor of the famous Grand Cru Classé St-Émilion estate Château Faugères
• This wine suits all types of classic roast, braised and grilled meat dishes: veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game and chicken.
• Average critical score is 91 points

Winemaking

• The vineyard has a vine density of 6,000 vines per hectare.
• The vines are thirty years of age, with some vines closer to fifty years of age. The terroir is limestone and clay soils.
• The grapes go through a five day cold soak and then go into stainless steel and large oak tanks, where malolactic fermentation takes place.
• A gravity flow system transfers wines during racking and after fermentation into the maturation vessels, which is a much more gentle process than using pumps, keeping all that phenolic goodness intact.
• The wine is aged in, mostly, one year old French oak barrels for 18-24 months.

Estate History

Château Cap de Faugères (website in English) is a wine estate comprising 46 hectares (114 acres) of the Côtes de Bordeaux Castillon appellation in the village of Sainte-Colombe. Annually, it produces approximately 100,000 bottles of its flagship wine, a Merlot-based Bordeaux red blend with smaller quantities of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

In 1823, the Esquissaud family purchased three Faugères estates: Châteaux Cap de Faugères, Faugères and Péby Faugères. Pierre-Bernard Guisez took control of the family business in 1987 and managed the three estates up until 2005, when Silvio Denz, a perfume designer and European winery owner, acquired them. He has since expanded the Château Cap de Faugères portfolio in collaboration with consultant oenologist, Michel Rolland.

Merlot reigns supreme at Cap de Faugères, laying claim to 85 per cent of the vineyards, with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon making up the remaining 15 per cent. These vines are on average 30 years old, and are cultivated using sustainable viticultural methods.