- This Wine is That Good
- My Tasting Note Says Wow! Wow! Wow!
If Most Wines are 2D or 3D, This is Virtual Reality
- Incredibly Vivid Aromatics and Flavors
- Profound Balance, Great LengthSurrounded by Grand Cru Vineyards with Great Drainage
Only US Offer of the 2014
Ultimately, Fass Selections is about finding new genius winemakers who are making incredible wines. I tend to do most of my hunting in Burgundy, Champagne, Germany, Italy and the Rhone. But when something great pops up on my radar anywhere, I race to try it. I had heard great things about Gravieres and arranged to have samples sent to my hotel while I was in France. I just opened them and immediately canceled the planned offer to sell them, I was so excited. These wines are in huge huge demand in France and rightfully so. The wines are simply put, awesome. I needed to sell it now to get an allocation. Honestly, I am sipping the wine as I write this and literally cannot wait for the Delectable notes from the list when you all try this.
I am super super exited to offer the 2014 Chateau Des Gravieres Margaux for $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. Out of the gates the nose is gorgeous. It is so aromatic and deep. Dark cassis and dark berry fruit but also juxtaposed with lovey brightness under that darkness. So much leather and loads of saddle leather. Incredible leather expression. So vivid. Also loads of appealing earth and mineral. The palate is the real story though. It is stunningly balanced and pure. I mean I was blown away and just kept saying wow! wow! wow! wow! I could not believe this wine. The balance is extremely profound. Juicy dark fruits that are wonderfully ripe with chewy refined tannin. Chewy and dense with startling purity and freshness. The freshness is unreal. Also so complex already. How can a wine with such dark fruit be so fresh? Leathery and earthy accents along with stunning minerality that echoes on the fresh and very, very long finish. Extreme concentration and super high quality tannin that is soft yet firm and hits you in waves. Very complex and built to age. A stunning, stunning wine. The fruit quality is astonishing. For all my Bordeaux people buy cases of this wine. It will age for 10-15 years easy. Just a genius bottle of wine. Drinks like a well made classified growth.
The terroir they have is just incredible and they are in the heart of Margaux surrounded by Grand Crus in every direction. As the name suggests the vineyard is planted on gravel pits that are 19-23 meters deep. Once you hit 14 meters you get a lot of pebbles and poor clay soils. This is critical as it is perfect for drainage. Drainage is everything in Bordeaux. The Medoc is essentially a drained swamp. The vines only have the necessary amount of water that is essential for growth so the struggle is real. But this struggle enables this wine to have an insane natural concentration of fruit. The blend is 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Peitit Verdot, 3% Malbec and 2% Carmenere. The average age of the vines is 30 years.
They are a bit "moon unit" in their approach but whatever they are doing it is working. Oh man is it working. They are old school as they come but also pay attention to the cosmic rhythms when bottling, picking and pruning. The vineyard is gorgeous with many plants between the rows and there is serious microbial and flora and fauna all living in harmony. The picking is all by hand and the sorting is all done in the vineyard. They raise the wine in French oak of which only 25% is new and they use minimal sulphur. Now you can see the way they make Bordeaux is more in tune with my producers and not which is typical in Bordeaux with all types of machines and glamorous fancy oak. This is small production, and I hate using this word but it applies here, artisanal Bordeaux.
2014 Chateau des Gravieres Margaux - $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack)
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