2018 Clos Martinet

Deep ruby-hued, with spicy, complex notes of ripe cherries, mulberries, dried earth, and leafy herbs, the 2018 Château Martinet is medium-bodied and has a silky, beautifully balanced mouthfeel, moderate, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It shows plenty of classic Saint-Emilion chalky minerality with time in the glass and is a satisfying, complex, already impressive Saint-Emilion. Drink bottles over the coming 10-12 years.

Brilliant ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet features fresh red and blue fruits, exotic spices and smoky minerals, and a suave floral topnote builds with air. Stains the palate with sweet, spice-laced black raspberry, cherry cola, star anise and floral pastille flavors braced by a spine of juicy acidity. Shows superb clarity and mineral thrust on the long, floral-dominated finish, which is given shape and grip by fine-grained, polished tannins.

The flagship 2018 Clos Martinet is the wine that started it all and is still a blend of Garnacha (Tinta and Peluda), Syrah, Cariñena, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Monastrell as it was since the beginning but now with a restrained 13.5% alcohol and higher acidity. Clos Martinet is a single five-hectare terraced vineyard planted with clonal material in 1986 on decomposed llicorella slate, iron and big rocks in the soil. The varieties are co-fermented depending on the date picked—at three different ripening times—in two concrete vats and 200-liter oak vats with indigenous yeast and whole clusters. The beginning and end of the élevage was in concrete, and in between they used 2,000- and 4,100-liter oak vats and some 20% in glass demijohn and amphorae. The wine is subtle and a bit shy, insinuating rather than in your face. There is a lot less ripeness than in the past. It's medium-bodied and fluid, fresh and balanced. This is a very elegant Clos Martinet. 11,070 bottles and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2020.