Updated: Sep 4, 2024
The 1996 Château de Camensac wine boasts a vibrant ruby color with a garnet rim and exudes lively cherry, plum, and cassis fruit flavors, complemented by hints of spices. The wine also presents bold aromas of leather, toast, vanilla, milk chocolate, and brown sugar. This well-balanced Haut-Médoc Cru Classé showcases a fresh palate, silky tannins, and distinct cedar tones, truly embodying the regional character.
Guided by renowned oenologists Michel Rolland and Eric Boissenot, this wine delivers exceptional value and cru quality. Perfectly paired with red meat, it leaves a lasting impression with its persistent finish. With a 13.5% ABV and a DD92 score, this medium-bodied wine is a true standout.
Château Camensac's 65 hectares of vineyards, situated in the commune of Saint-Laurent-Médoc, are meticulously cultivated and yield 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. The 35-year-old vines are densely planted at 10,000 vines per hectare, and the estate strictly maintains yields at 45 hectoliters per hectare, ensuring top-notch quality. Hand-picked and sorted grapes further attest to the estate’s commitment to excellence.
Updated: Mar 8, 2023
Dense purple and weighty, Kirwan 2010 is still muscular yet relatively closed. In great contrast to 2000, this 2010 is tangy and elegant; lilac, purple flowers, mineral, red currant, and cherry notes mingle together and carry through the focused finish. Long; bodied; tensioned. 2010 is blend with 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot. Farr mentioned that the Boissenots had
consulted here since 2007 (replacing Michel Rolland), and the wine is now less new-oak, less late-picked and less jammy in style. Kirwan is now a wine of classic Margaux elegance. Good purity and structure, well-rounded tannins, attractive red fruit. Still, it will need some time to open.
The scores average from humble 91 to 92+, but the prices are always good for the quality.
RP92+.As always, this estate produced a blockbuster style of Margaux in 2010, with the more masculine side of the appellation providing density, power, a big body, loads of fruit, extract and richness. This wine is powerful and concentrated but by no means excessively extracted. Dense purple, muscular, deep and impressive, it is a wine that allows for no compromise among wine lovers. So forget it for 6-10 years and drink it over the following 20-40 years. Keep in mind that in the 19th century, Kirwan was making some of the longest-lived wines of Margaux, so it is nothing new to see this property produce big, blockbuster reds that require considerable patience from their prospective purchasers.
We also list this wine because its style is in great contrast to Chateau L'Arrosse 2006, both of the same class; it is much backward. From a superbly situated on St.-Emilion's plateau, a 38-acre vineyard planted on primarily limestone and clay, this 2006 is meant for long-term ageing, unlike L' Arrosse, which is more for intermediate gratification. However, Pavie Macquin 2006 starts drinking well now.
A combination of 80% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, it is a backward, brawny, muscular, long-distance runner. Consumers lacking patience are advised to steer clear of this wine. Its dense purple colour is followed by graphite, sweet cassis, pen ink, and charcoal aromas. This powerful, dense, concentrated wine possesses high tannins and lots of structure. Structured and of extended fruit
length.
RP93. The 2006 Château Pavie Macquin has a ripe, sensual bouquet with copious kirsch and blueberry scents, fine tension and poise, and a faint whiff of boot polish in the background. The palate is very elegant on the entry, pure and supple in the mouth, and succulent with vivid black cherry and dark plum notes. It is that keen line of acidity cutting through the fruit that takes this Saint Emilion to a higher level, and it comes highly recommended. Edited.
93
