Description
The Clos Lunelles 8.5 hectare vineyard is planted to 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc. The vineyard has a terroir of clay and limestone soils. The vines are well placed on the peak of the limestone plateau in Cotes de Castillon.
Yields are always kept low at Clos Lunelles. To accomplish this, the vines are crop-thinned, deleafed, hand-harvested and table-sorted. To produce the wine of Clos Lunelles, extensive labor is involved. In fact, Clos Lunelles is one of the most labor intensive wines to produce in the entire appellation.
Tasting Note
“One of the bigger, more tannic and powerful wines of the vintage, although it is only 14.4% alcohol, which puts it well below some of the blockbusters in the Cotes de Castillon, this wine exhibits wonderfully pure black raspberry, black cherry and graphite notes intermixed with hints of cedar and liquorice, in a medium to full-bodied, slightly softer and less extracted style than usual. This is another sleeper of the vintage that should drink nicely for up to a decade. The Perse family finally dropped the -Les- from the name of this estate, which should make it easier to remember. The 2010, a blend of 80% Merlot and the rest equal parts Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, was produced from absurdly low yields of 25 hectolitres per hectare.” [91 points, Robert M. Parker Jr. – February 2013, robertparker.com]
