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Wine Description
The Story
Indeed famous people had appreciated it: the wine was served at the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenêt; it was also the favorite wine of Emperor Franz Joseph. The motto of the estate "Regum mensis aris that deorum" means “for the table of kings and the altar of the gods”.
The family Cruse, who has been established in the Médoc for 150 years, now owns the castle. The château d'Issan is made of 120 hectares, of which 50 are dedicated to the culture of the vines. The grapes used to produce the great wine of the château (ranked third in 1855’s classification) and the second wine, Blason d'Issan, are the cabernet sauvignon and the merlot. The use of these varieties allows the château d'Issan to propose typical wines of Margaux with the strength of a Pauillac.
Vintage 2020
In Bordeaux, the heat resulted in early flowering. Also, this led to an early harvest after a very hot summer. As a starting point, there is great maturity in the grapes, and one can expect a more opulent vintage than in the last few years.
The summer this year has been the warmest since 1959, yet the rain has fallen at the right times during the growing season. The harvest took place two weeks before the norm and will yield grapes with high potential alcohol and the lowest acidity since the 2003 vintage. As they say in Bordeaux: "It has been a good and extreme growing season which hopefully also produces great wines".