Chateau Les Barraillots Margaux

Chateau Les Barraillots Margaux. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon en Petit Verdot. from Bordeaux, France. Château Les Barraillots, one of the rare Crus Artisans Margaux since 1928 amidst the Grans Crus Classés of Margaux. The vineyard, 7 hectares of grapevines averaging 40 years old, stands on poor, gravelly soil. Respecting the traditional culture and nature, they work without any chemicals. Beautiful purple red color. A nose of red fruit with vanilla and wood. On the palate: round, soft and balanced with a nice finish of licorice and mint.A nose of red fruit with vanilla and wood. Merlot (40%), Cabernet Sauvignon (50%) en Petit Verdot (10%)

Merlot is one of the oldest Vitis vinifera varieties that ripens earlier than Carbernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Merlot is important in Bordeaux, especially in Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. Merlot plantings have increased significantly in recent years. The grape is very popular worldwide and people are increasingly realizing that Merlot must be planted in a fairly cool vineyard. This grape produces dark, cool, soft, spicy and fruity wines. Cabernet Sauvignon is best known in Bordeaux where, together with merlot and cabernet franc, it produces high-class wines. It needs a lot of heat to ripen, otherwise it will become green and juicy with a taste of green pepper. Too much heat makes it soft and jam-like, with a taste of blackcurrants. Cabernet Sauvignon produces very aromatic wines with scents of blackcurrant, vanilla, spices (pepper), tobacco, plum, cherry, toasted bread and cedar. The wines usually have a long shelf life, have a lot of tannin and in principle have to mature in barriques. By applying modern vinification techniques, young wines can now also be drinkable quickly. In general, the wines have a high phenol content, they are purple (young) or dark red (old) and have a lot of strength and structure. Cabernet Sauvignon can be found all over the world. Wherever someone wants to make a ‘serious’ wine, cabernet sauvignon is planted.

Petit verdot is a very high quality grape with a thick and dark colored skin. The grape originally comes from the Médoc and is mainly planted in the Margaux, where the soil leads to lighter wines that need the extra tannin and color of petit verdot. Petit verdot is only used in small quantities to give red wines a little more strength, depth and substance. The grape ripens very late and produces an irregular harvest. Only in the best and warmest years does the grape fully ripen. Due to this difficult nature, many vintners have replaced the petit verdot with commercially more reliable grapes such as caberbet sauvignon, merlot and malbec. Yet you see it more and more these days that quality-conscious wine growers are planting the petit verdot again. The wines are characterized by a very intense, powerful and concentrated taste with great spiciness and a lot of depth.