2010 Château Magrez-Fombrauge

Dense purple, with notes of blackberry, white chocolate, mulberry and toasty oak, this is a full-bodied, massive, rich, thick and unctuously textured wine with outstanding purity, richness and headiness. Of course, there’s always criticism that wines like this don’t age, but I own the 2000, and it is still an infant at 13 years of age, so I don’t think that’s an issue. This wine needs a good 5-6 years of cellaring and should keep for 20-25 years at the minimum. This tiny garagiste estate has produced a wine from 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc from what is considered the best parcel of the larger Fombrauge vineyard, where the harvest occurred in mid-October. There are only about 500-600 cases of it. It is clearly a modern, rather internationally styled wine, but it is impeccably well-made.

Fresh and intriguing on the nose. Vital and vibrant and very sweet – without tannic excess though tannin certainly lurks here. A very pretty wine with real potential. (JR)