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Chateau Soutard Grand Cru Classe Saint-Emilion 2018  - First Bottle

Reviews

97 Jeb Dunnuck -
The flagship 2018 Chateau Soutard checks in as 61% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. It's hands down the finest wine I've tasted from this estate and offers a thrilling bouquet of cassis and black raspberry fruits as well as notes of camphor, tobacco, dried flowers, and dried rose petals. Full-bodied and flawlessly balanced, with silky tannins and that rare richness without weight character that's the hallmark of truly great wines, it's going to benefit from 3-4 years (it's brilliant even today) and have 20-25 years of prime drinking. Hats off to the team at Soutard!
94 Vinous -
The 2018 Soutard is an inky, exuberant wine. Raspberry jam, mocha, licorice, cedar and blood orange saturate the palate. Sweet floral/spiced top notes add lift, but Soutard is mostly a wine of textural resonance and creaminess. Ripe, silky tannins wrap around the succulent finish.
94 Wine Enthusiast -
From the vineyard that surrounds one of the grandest chateaux in Saint-Emilion, this wine brings richness, complexity and density. A blend that unusually includes Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, it is a structured, firm wine that emphasizes tannins as much as the black-currant fruits. It will be ready from 2026.
93 Falstaff -
Dark ruby garnet, violet reflections, subtle edge lightening. Delicately tobacco-infused black wild berry confit, nuances of cherries and blackberries, delicate orange zest. Juicy, ripe heart cherries, some nougat, round tannins fresh finish, drink-animating, lively style.
93 Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider -
Showing much better in bottle than in barrel, the wine is medium/full-bodied, soft, silky, elegant and fresh. The fruit is sweet, pure, refined, long and lifted, with good length and vibrancy in the finish. The wine is a blend of 61% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Malbec.
92 James Suckling -
Plums and light prunes with conifer and nuts on the nose. It’s medium-to full-bodied with round, creamy tannins and a juicy finish. Drink after 2023.

Technical Details

  • Blend61% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Malbec
  • CountryFrance
  • RegionBordeaux
  • AppellationSaint-Emilion
  • Aging/Cooperage18 months ageing in French oak barrels coming from 8 different cooperages.
  • Alcohol14.5%

Chateau Soutard Grand Cru Classe Saint-Emilion 2018

Bordeaux Blends  |  France
JD97, VN94, WE94, FS93, JL93, JS92

36% off retail!

We’re thrilled to have gotten anything from this amazing producer...one of the oldest Saint-Emilion producers, with a wine that is one of their best efforts to date! 97 points and a cool 37% OFF, this is one to treasure and hoard!

“It's hands down the finest wine I've tasted from this estate…” - Jeb Dunnuck. So...that’s good, right? You bet! This is a remarkable estate that consistently gets scores from the critics in the low to mid-90s range. Clearly stepping things up a notch with the spectacular 2018 vintage, this wine is one of the best Bordeauxs of the vintage...at nowhere near the price of its competition. Heady, intense, and brooding – loaded with blackberry, black plum, cherries, blood orange, mint, violets, truffle, and black currant, the wine is stimulating, thought-provoking, and downright entrancing. Rich, plush, and mouth-coating, but not heavy, this is everything you hope for in a glass of world-class wine.

Spread across 30 hectares just outside of the village of Saint-Emilion, the terroir is mostly the remnants of a clay and limestone plateau, with additional clay hillsides above and sandy foothills below. Planted dominantly to merlot (63%), and then followed classically by cabernet franc (28%) with smaller plots of cabernet sauvignon (7%) and malbec (2%). The vine material averages 30+-years-old, planted in orderly rows. In fact, the estate is known for being among the first vineyards to be planted in rows – a concept that is undoubtedly commonplace today.

With a soil depth of only 30 centimeters, the soil is annually turned over, once to bring what little nutrient material exists up to the surface and then again in the opposite direction to smooth out the landscape. The harvest occurs by hand, with all berries de-stemmed and processed through the gravity-flow winery for fermentation in large wooden tanks. For the 18 months elevage, the wine is transferred to 60% new French barrels and 40% once-used barrels, with roughly 50% of the wine undergoing malolactic fermentation during this time.

This is the perfect opportunity to get to know a historic estate as they evolve to turn out the best wines in its long history. With a complete renovation of the property in the last ten years, this estate is one to watch in Saint-Emilion and one to visit as well! Just fantastic stuff to drink now and anytime over the next 20+ years! While it lasts!

PAIRING IDEAS: If you’ve ever been to Napa, hopefully you stopped in at Cindy Pawlcyn’s famous Mustards Grill. Her life-changing, succulent, and savory Mongolian Pork Chops are perfect for this. Serve with braised red cabbage and roasted carrots.

MUSIC SUGGESTIONS: This wine strikes me as soulful and powerfully romantic...so we’re going with one of my all-time favorite love songs: “Cover Me Up” by Jason Isbell.

About the Producer

At the end of a majestic corridor of linden trees, Chateau Soutard looks resplendent with its proud 18th century façade and 16th century limestone wings, typical of traditional Bordeaux farm buildings. Jean Couture, a Saint-Emilion Jurat, bought the property in 1699 and his daughter Marie built the chateau in 1741. Their descendants made the dwelling more beautiful, devoting themselves entirely to the vines. Soutard became one of the first chateaux to plant their vines “in rows”. In the 19th century, Jean Lavau, one of the biggest landowners in Saint-Emilion made the estate prosper. Then it was handed over to Michel des Ligneris in 1919, whose descendants ran the property for almost a century. In 2006, Chateau Soutard was acquired by La MONDIALE, part of AG2R LA MONDIALE, the number one social protection group in France and already owners of Chateau Larmande and Chateau Grand Faurie La Rose.