Domaine De Baron'Arques 2016, Rouge

£39.95 per bottle

ABV 15.0%

We recently tasted this wine at Chateau Mouton Rothschild and as soon as we got back to the UK we had to buy this great wine.

This is quite possibly the finest vintage that the estate have produced, and the platinum medal it won at Decanters world of wine awards certainly adds weight to that statement. This is a blend of 54% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 17% Syrah, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Malbec. The 2016 was kind to Southern France, and indeed to much of the country – warm days, cool nights and no heat spikes made for perfect conditions to produce this wonderfully intense and powerful wine. Despite the power there’s freshness and poise too. Think iron fist and velvet glove and you’ll start to understand this wine. It is packed with liquorice and tobacco stained fruit with supple and silky tannins wrapped around a core of juicy black fruit.

Domaine de Baronarques is a very old estate, dating back at least to the 17th Century, when it was called Domaine de Lambert. At the time, the estate belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Polycarpe, a village near Limoux in the Aude department of Southern France. In 1998 Baroness Philippine and her two sons acquired the estate. The three entrusted the management of the Domaine to the family company, Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A. The estate was very run down, calling for extensive renovation of the vineyard and the winemaking facilities, a process that took five years.
The estate now produces three fabulous wines from a vineyard that is planted predominantly with Rhone and Bordeaux varietals, with a small plot of Chardonnay in the southern reaches of the vineyard.