At the top of its
appellation. The roads of
Château Berthenon and the Ponz-planter family crossed for the first time in 1953. It was at this time that Paul Planter (the grandfather) bought this wine
estate which was almost abandoned. He quickly transferred the property to his children and it was they (Léa and Henri) who restored the Castle and made it prosper.
The relay has been transmitted to the third generation (Thérèse and Thierry) since 1999. The
estate covers 37 ha, 80%
Merlot and 20% Cabernet-
Sauvignon.
“Despite a bit of hail, the 2018 harvest was very good, we were lucky with a particularly sunny back-season, and what we produced is of great quality,” says Thérèse Ponz-Szymanski. “
We are going to make a Chloé
vintage in 2018, we did not make one in 2017. The wine is currently in barrels at the breeding.
Château Berthenon 2017 is an easy wine to drink, not too much tannin, a pleasure wine, on the fruit, round, we also made Tradition and the
Cuvée Henri 2017.
The Blaye
Bordeaux Blanc 2018 is great, thanks to the very clayey soil, the grapes have not suffered from the drought. It is a superb white wine with aromas of passion fruit and citrus. The
rosé is also very successful, delicious aromas of English candy, a dry but fruity
rosé, of medium sustained color, of a pretty pink. It is a 100%
Merlot rosé with fruity aromas and strawberry-flavored.
James Suckling of the Wine Spectator to which I presented my 2016 wines gave me good ratings, 91 for the Chloé
Cuvée, 81+ for
Cuvée Henri and 88 for Tradition. It is important to me that these good results are appreciated by importers, I work a lot with Asia and the United States.”
We are really pleased with his Blaye Côtes de
Bordeaux Cuvée Chloé 2016, total scraping of the harvest, malolactic
fermentation in barrels, breeding on
fine lees in new barrels 18 months, a broad wine, which combines color and material, with its aromas of red
fruits with stone and liquorice, finely tannic, rich mouth, of course. In the lineage, the 2015, beautiful material, is a dark wine, with a powerful nose of blackcurrant and undergrowth, where the distinction is associated with the richness, really tasty. The 2014 is a wine with material, beautiful colour and with intense aromas of small red
fruits (plum, cherry), a nice finish and very good evolution. The Blaye Côtes de
Bordeaux Cuvée Henri 2015, with these characteristic and very persistent notes of redcurrant, smoked and spices, with dense and ripe tannins at the same time, a full mouth wine, of excellent guard. The Blaye Côtes de
Bordeaux red 2016, with a powerful nose where ripe and blackcurrant blend, ample and solid, silky mouth, a tasty wine, delicate with round tannins. Tasty 2015, with cherry colour, purple reflections with raspberry aromas, rich in mouth, mixing power and
finesse, a wine with ripe tannins.
Enjoy the 2018 Blaye
Bordeaux Blanc Sauvignon, one of the best in the
appellation, with its aromatic, harmonious and elegant delicacies, with pink and apple scents, a supple but lively mouth, to be enjoyed on stuffed clams as well as with fillets of herring potatoes in oil.
The
Crémant de
Bordeaux white, even
Sauvignon grape, with light bubbles, lively mouth where one finds the fresh almond and the apple, is of fringante moss, like the
Crémant rosé, which smells strawberry, perfect, in particular, on grey shrimp
or a chocolate cake.