Chateau La Gaffeliere, Saint Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classe 2020

"A worthy follow up to the excellent 2019, the 2020 La Gaffelière bursts with aromas of plums, sweet berries, licorice, mint and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and concentrated, with lively acids and vibrant fruit flavors, it's built around powdery, fine-grained tannins. Cabernet Franc represents fully 40% of the blend. As I wrote last year, this estate, in many respects Saint-Émilion's sleeping giant, is awakening."

The Wine Advocate 95 pts.

Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé, the renowned Château La Gaffelière is rooted in centuries of tradition. Over the last 15 years, the estate has benefited from significant investments as a replanting program, the construction of a new fermentation room for a more precise plot by plot vinification process and a cold chamber, the purchase of an optical sorting machine, a vertical press. Since 2004, the property is advised by Stéphane Derenoncourt (wine consultant). 

Vineyard Area: 22 ha / 19 ha in production.
Terroir : limestone plateau, clay-limestone soil on hillside, foothills more siliceous 
Average age of vines : 35 years old.
Grape varieties: 80% Merlot et 20% Cabernet Franc.
Yeld: 40 hl/ha.

Vineyard Management : 
Simple and double Guyot pruning - Grass cover crops in the rows - Manual de-leafing - Crop thinning.

Handpicking from September to October.
Painstaking selection in the vines - optical sorting machine (purchased in 2013) 
No crusher – plot by plot vinification in small size temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, filled up by gravity.
- Alcoholic fermentation with pump-overs and punching down, 
- Malo-lactic fermentation 75% in vats, 25% in barrels, 
Ageing for 14 months, in oak barrels, of which 50% are brand new.