Reviews
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
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.