2013 Les Grandes Murailles

The wine has a deep bluish plum/ruby/purple color. A nice sweet kiss of blackcurrants, blueberry and black raspberries with chalky minerality, and a floral note. That’s followed by a medium-bodied wine with surprisingly good depth, moderate texture, impressive purity and overall equilibrium. This is a sleeper of the vintage and a beauty, but it will be difficult to find given the tiny production. This nearly five-acre parcel is now owned by the Cuvelier family, proprietors of the famous classified-growth of St.-Emilion, Clos Fourtet, as well as the up-and-coming property in the Medoc, Moulis-Poujeaux. The 2013, which is I believe their first vintage, and obviously a very challenging one as a debut, offered low yields at 25 hectoliters per hectare. Somewhat uncharacteristically, the wine was made from 100% Merlot, and only 500 cases were produced instead of at least twice that in a normal year.