2012 Magrez Fombrauge
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Tasting notes
The 2012 Magrez Fombrauge, Bernard Magrez's flagship Saint-Emilion, is rich, racy and powerful, yet all the elements seem to come together effortlessly. Mocha, chocolate, raspberry jam, cinnamon, licorice and incense flesh out as this flamboyant wine shows off its personality. Magrez Fombrauge is a classic Magrez/Rolland wine built on sheer opulence and intensity. In short, the 2012 is a terrific example of this very specific style of winemaking.
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Average Score
Robert Parker
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
A luxury cuvée from the bigger estate of Château Fombrauge, this wine is a visionary project from Bernard Magrez along with his winemaking team and consultant Michel Rolland. This micro cuvée of 4,000 bottles, a blend of 59% Merlot and 41% Cabernet Franc, is another strong, successful effort. Although this wine saw its Cabernet Franc picked very late (October 17 and 18), it has no sense of overripeness, but a beautiful inky purple color and a sweet blueberry and blackberry nose intermixed with tar, graphite and some spicy oak. It is medium to full-bodied, elegant, pure, and while not the monster that its older siblings (2010, 2009 and 2005) were, it is still a big, rich, impressively concentrated St.-Emilion. Drink it over the next 15 or more years.
Firm, chewy but fresh too. Very tight tannin structure. Powerfully formed and the fruit all in hiding but definitely there because it is neither dry nor hard. Impressive. (JH)