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Wine Description
The Story
This leading Grand Cru Classé estate, Château Teyssier is celebrated around the world for its imitable handcrafted fine-wines. Progressively growing in size and quality since the 1700s, this wine-producing tract is now the flagship property and residence of Englishman Jonathan Maltus and his family. Purchased in 1994, right in the middle of the pivotal garage movement, the Saint-Émilion château gained recognition for their oenological technologies and viticultural passion culminated by their wine, Le Dome. Today, the over 50-hectare vine covered estate stretches across the village-hugging Cru Classé terroirs of the appellation, producing eight wines ranging from estate to limited-production single-vineyard bottles. The modern vinification practices, headed by Neil Whyte start with pre-fermentation maceration, followed by malolactic in barrel and ageing on the lees for added richness. Each blend is produced in the same spirit of excellence, the wines are soft, attractive, subtly spicy, dark and plummy examples of the region.
This Single Vineyard wine is made from a single hectare on 'Astéries' (rock limestone) soil between Château Fonroque and Clos Fourtet. The vines survived the frost of 1956 and are up to eighty years old. ‘Panachéed' in the old style (merlot interspersed with cabernet franc to ensure easy blending in the days before pumps) they are cropped down to four bunches per vine to reflect the 'terroir' of the parcel.
Unlike most of the wines of the Château, Les Astéries exhibits a strain of minerality that emphasises the 'rock' like sub-soil.
The wine is pure vineyard rather than a 'winemaker's' wine. Huge colour, high extraction of black fruits, totally hedonistic palate but almost Saint-Estèphe grip on the finish, fresh and very, very long.
Vintage 2010
Drought and cool temperatures contribute to optimal ripeness
The sum of summer temperatures in 2010 was close to that of summer 2009 (962°C compared to 982°C), but significantly colder than those of 2005, which totaled 1052°C. These cool temperatures had a substantial influence on the balance of our wines, preserving a good level of acidity and an attractive aromatic freshness.
Very little precipitation (only 267 mm) from March to August 2010 generating a drought of similar intensity to that of 2005, when only 227 mm of rain fell.
Another characteristic of the 2010 vintage is the low temperatures especially during the first three weeks of August, which allowed good acidity levels to be preserved in the grapes while maintaining an attractive aromatic freshness.