Chateau Fombrauge St Emilion Grand Cru Classe

Description

Chateau Fombrauge  is bottled St Emilion Grand Cru Classé. It is, in fact, the largest Grand Cru Classé of Saint Emilion. 

The history of Chateau Fombrauge is linked to 3 families: the Canolles, the Dumas, and the Taffards. The first mentions of Fombrauge go back about six centuries. In 1466, a horseman by the name of Jacques de Canolle, made himself master of Fombrauge after acquiring the estate. He quickly set about farming his lands and planted his first vines. The estate has been owned by wine legend Bernard Magrez since 1999. Magrez also owns Château Pape Clément in Graves, Château Fombrauge in St Emilion and Clos Haut-Peyraguey in Sauternes.

Today the h a vineyard covers 58.60 hectares (nearly 145 acres), this unusually large surface area for Saint-Emilion brings a unique typicity to its terroir –a typicity in diversity. The diversity of its soils and the vineyard’s wide range of exposures give the wine of Fombrauge its complexity and identity. To ensure the full expression of the estate’s rich terroir, Bernard Magrez, today combines ancestral savoir-faire with precision viticulture. The result is a sublime wine, the epitome of a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé.

The grapes for Chateau Fombrauge undergo a plot by plot selection according to terroir, grape variety and age of vines. Intra-plot selection is made possible by the use of vigour and ripeness maps established with a drone. The grapes are harvested by hand into small crates. The grapes are sorted on a table before and after de-stemming by 20 qualified staff. The berries are transferred by gravity-flow to small-sized 70-hectolitre oak, stainless steel and concrete vats. Pre-fermentation cold soak for 4 to 8 days at 8°C. Completely manual pigeages. ​Maceration time: Merlot: 28 to 32 days, Cabernet: 26 to 28 days. 16 months’ ageing, 40% in new barrels and 60% in second-fill barrels.