Saint-Émilion Grand Cru: Château Alverne 2019

With vines situated both on the limestone-clay plateau of Saint-Emilion and the sandy-clay soils of the southern part of the appellation, at Château Alverne winemaker Lionel Wojcik has a broad palette of fruit with which to work. Blended from a majority of Merlot, it is finessed with 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. From vines averaging 20+ years old that are worked by hand, fruit for this Saint-Émilion Grand Cru from Château Alverne is picked manually and sorted before the winemaking begins. Advised by the Mitjavile family (Tertre Roteboeuf, Roc de Cambes), their signature 'Radoux' new oak barrels show their quality in the wine in flavour terms, but the wine's red fruit flavours are enhanced rather than dominated by the oak. Mostly Merlot, the Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon add wonderful floral notes of roses which lift to the nose, with dried red cherry, prune and cassis fruit flavours, sweet spice and a little cedary oak underlined by supple, fine-grained tannins. It finishes elegantly with bright red fruit and lovely complexity.If drinking this wine young, decant for a couple of hours to allow the wine to reach its full potential. Like all Mitjavile-styled wines, this will drink early but has the bones to age. Saint-Émilion Grand Cru: Château Alverne 2019. Château Alverne. Bordeaux Wine > Wine. Red Wine