Château Fonréaud

90 Neal Martin // 91 Wine Enthusiast // 88 Wine Spectator // Or Bruxelles

The vintage of contrasts

2011 is a year of climate paradoxes. A spring like a summer with very hot days from the end of May and very little rain lead to a big advance in the cycle of the vine (about 1 month) and a perfect sanitary condition. Early budding: from the 30th of March. Flowering: second half of May. A summer resembling a spring, so that “in July, everything goes back”, the vine still retaining 15 days ahead of its normal cycle. Rainfall is above the average of the previous 30 years. August lack of heat with above-normal rainfall and tropical weather the last week.

The harvest starts on September 15th and ends on the 30th. If the beginning is under the grisaille, with a fairly fast harvest of the merlots that are ripe, the climatic conditions improve from the 19th with cool nights and hot days. allow to wait for the maturity of the Cabernets harvested at the end of the month. The extraction of tannins was done gently to obtain balance and finesse.

The wines have a lot of charm, a balanced structure with soft and mellow tannins, a nice fruit, a remarkable freshness