Les Tourelles de Longueville 2007

Product Description

Les Tourelles de Longueville is the second wine of Château Pichon-Longueville Baron, a leading Pauillac second growth Cru Classé.

The story of Tourelles began in 1986 when AXA-Millésimes acquired Château Pichon-Longueville. Thanks to new ultramodern wine making equipment and an experienced and talented team, the time was right to create a second wine. Tourelles was crafted to be both a true brother to the first wine and an attractive Pauillac for wine-lovers unwilling to cellar for many years. When parts of the vineyard were replanted with Merlot and Cabernet Franc in the late eighties, the style of Tourelles was injected with more personality and complexity.

From that time on, the wine has personified the excellence of its terroir and the elegance of its grape varieties.

Region/Terroir:  Médoc - Pauillac

Grapes:  Merlot (62%), Cabernet Sauvignon (28%), Cabernet Franc (10%). Average age 20 years.

Alcohol:  13.5% VOL

Soil:  Here the soil consists of fine gravels and clay supported by a layer of iron hard pan. As for the Cabernet Sauvignon, it is grown on the best kind of pebbly plateau. This excellent terroir imbues the wine with complexity through the deeper layers of gravel that directly neighbour the château.

Wine making:  The vineyard is perfectly drained, and environmentally friendly viticulture practises are used across the board. No pesticides are sprayed and consequently grasses grow amongst the vines which keep yields lower. Individual grape sorting before vinification ensures only the best grapes are selected.

Wine-making is parcel orientated, to better reflect the specific conditions of both soil and vintage climate.

Merlot undergoes cold pre-fermentation maceration. Traditional vinification takes place in stainless steel vats, under controlled temperature. Maceration over 15 to 25 days and malolactic fermentation in vats.

Ageing in French oak barrels (50% new, 50% one year old) for 12 months. Egg-white fining is the last task before bottling, some 20 months after harvest.

Cellaring potential:  This wine will repay cellaring for 10-15 years.

Our Tasting notes:  Deep purple colour. The nose is marked by blackberries, mild spices and notes of oak coming from a remarkably well-integrated barrel ageing. There are some pleasant meaty tones. In the mouth, the texture is both soft and extremely pure and juicy. A complex wine of great quality and power.

“This has been one of the most sumptuous, rich, verging-on-decadent wines with one of, if not the, best price tags in Bordeaux over the last 10 years, and this is the finest example to date. Crafted for early drinking, this is one of our top five value wines of 2010.
Berry Brothers and Rudd, English Wine Merchants”

Jancis Robinson 16.5/20

Sean Mitchell from the Grape Hunter ..."this 
wine
 delivered 
and
 joined my
 short
 list
 of
 good 
Bordeaux 
from
 2007.  As they say, in bad years, follow good producers.  This is a good producer.  One of the best perhaps".  89-90 points

Product Code: 10067