Chateau Fleur Cardinale Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2016 (750ml)

The 2016 Fleur Cardinale is a muscular, beautiful and profound wine full of olive tapendade, tar, smoked earth, and tons of liquorice, bitter chocolate shavings, cassis and blueberry fruits. Things close in to a slate textured finish that gives balance and makes your mouth water, and as things open you get clearer peony floral aromatics curling out of the glass. This was the point at which the Decoster family were really making me sit up and take notice of what was happening at Fleur Cardinale, and it is starting to sing as five years old.

A blend of 74% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2016 Château Fleur Cardinale spent 14 months in new French oak. Deep ruby/purple-colored, with a stunning nose of smoked black fruits, classy oak, violets, and camphor, this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, beautiful purity, ripe, present, polished tannins, and a great finish. It's a beautiful wine from this tip-top estate that has the class to keep for two decades or more.

The 2016 Fleur Cardinale is medium to deep garnet-purple colored and bursts from the glass with crushed blackberries, mulberries and chocolate-covered cherries with hints of spice cake, dried herbs and fragrant soil. The palate is medium to full-bodied and wonderfully elegant with soft, rounded tannins and a great backbone of freshness, finishing perfumed. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown