Chateau L’Esperance is a small Chateau spread across an area of 10km2 located in the hills of Blaye, the hills in Blaye are only about 40 meters above sea level but offer enough to create some brilliant wines, some of these brilliant wines come from Chateau L’Esperance and are created and sold by Thomas Marchant.
The first time I tried one of Thomas Marchant’s wines was when I initially arrived in Blaye, Thomas invited me to his home for a blind wine tasting. The first wine we tried was of course his wine Cuvee Trois Freres, I loved it so much that when I came back to the UK for Christmas I decided to bring a few bottles back to give away as presents and keep a few for my greedy self!
Cuvee Trois Freres 2010 is a typical Bordeaux Blend consisting of 90% Merlot, 5% Malbec & 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, the vintage 2010 is one of the best vintages from the past decade, everything was perfect for the vines, very few corrections were needed to obtain the perfect maturity of the grapes, the terrior produced a brilliant well balanced wine, it’s full bodied and very fruity. This is expressed through the flavours and characteristics of the wine. Cuvee Trois Freres has been aged in new oak barrels for 12 months before blending.
I tend to get on very well with Bordeaux reds as I love Merlots, however, this wine has small hints of Malbec which adds complexity and spice, whilst the Cabernet Sauvignon brings acidity, tannin and an aromatic aroma of rich black fruit. When tasting a wine I always think a lot about the aroma, if you had a nose like mine you’d understand. If the wine smells good, it’s hard not to love it!
Appearance: Deep ruby red
Nose: Very complex aromas of black fruits, medium intensity and a mild oakyness.
Palate: Velvety, smooth texture in the mouth, medium tannin with high acidity. Flavours of blackberry and cherries with a very slight spice.
Conclusion: Very well balanced wine, with great depth of flavours, well worth a buy!
I drank this wine with a nice juicy steak, I’d recommend you do the same!
Here is the link for the website of the wine: http://www.vignobles-jonck.com/home/#estate-wines
I’ll give it a rating of 4/5, Job well done!