Les Astéries 2009

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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate / From vines sitting on hard limestone, this wine is a blend of 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc that offers prodigious levels of extract, richness, complexity and overall harmony. A fabulous wine, with black fruits galore intermixed with a liqueur of crushed rocks and spring flowers, the wine has plenty of tannin and is best cellared over at least 4-5 years and consumed over the following two decades.

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.