Fontfleurie 2019

Fontfleurie is a Saint-Émilion Grand Cru from Vignobles Jade, owner of Château Fleur de Lisse, on the right bank of the Dordogne. It comes from sandy-silt soils in the Saint-Émilion appellation, renowned for its fleshy Merlots and elegant Cabernet Francs, under a temperate oceanic climate that favours slow, steady ripening of the grapes.

This blend of 79% Merlot and 21% Cabernet Franc is aged for 18 months in large oak vats (foudres) and barrels, 30% of them new wood, as well as in amphorae for 16% of the volume. This ageing combining wood and terracotta refines the texture and preserves the purity of the fruit, for a wine that is both melting and precise.

This wine reveals notes of cherry, plum, blackcurrant, raspberry, violet, vanilla, mocha and liquorice. The pure fruit expresses itself with charm, supported by delicate oak notes. The palate offers a melting texture, supple tannins and a gourmand, persistent finish.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.