2009 Charmail
Buying options
Tasting notes
One of those hidden little gem estates, the 2009 Château Charmail is a more Merlot-dominated red that includes 47% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Despite being a big, ripe, sexy beauty of a wine, it has a remarkable sense of freshness and purity, and it only gains in stature with time in the glass. Offering lovely notes of red and black currants, chocolate, tobacco leaf, earth, and truffle, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, beautiful tannins, no hard edges, and a great finish. Don't be afraid to give well-stored bottles plenty of air. This awesome little Margaux will continue evolving gracefully for another 10-15 years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Wine Spectator
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Medium red-ruby. Sexy aromas of black raspberry, coffee, menthol and flowers. Chewy, dense and plush; ripe but not overripe. Dark berry, espresso and menthol flavors are framed by sweet oak and ripe chocolatey tannins. A superb performance for this chateau: generous, deep and long on the aftertaste.
This is another over-achieving estate that tends to produce wines with lots of intensity and structure. This wine certainly has the formidable intensity one expects from Charmail, but the tannins are silky smooth and the result is the sexiest Charmail to date. An opulent, even voluptuously textured wine, full-bodied and dense purple in color, it is a seductive blend of 47% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered and came in with natural alcohols of 14%. The low acidity, plush fruit and silky tannins all suggest drinking this over the next decade. It is another sleeper of the vintage, of which there is nearly an endless supply in this great year.