Château Fleur Cardinale 2023

A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Classé with freshness and a beautiful aromatic structure

The estate

Grand Cru Classé, the Château Fleur Cardinale reveals all the typicity of the Saint-Émilion terroir, an emblematic appellation of the right bank of Bordeaux.

The vineyard

The Château Fleur Cardinale 2023 is a Saint-Émilion wine from a 27.6 hectare vineyard in production. With an average age of 30 years, the vines are planted on a true mosaic of terroirs with clay-limestone soils.

The vintage

The winter is cool, with bud break at the end of March before a short and early frost episode. Subsequently, the weather conditions alternating heat, humidity and night-time mildness resulted in both a rapid development of the vineyard and significant disease pressure. After a June with 92 mm of accumulated rainfall, July is characterised by water stress favouring the polyphenolic potential of the berries. The instability at the beginning of August is offset by the end of the month, whose mildness, combined with a balanced late season, is ideal for refining maturities.

Vinification and ageing

Manual harvesting in small crates is followed by rigorous sorting in the vineyard. Destemming then sorting by density before final manual sorting. Gravity-fed vatting. Short pre-fermentation maceration under bio protection. Full vinification in 20 barrels of 500 litres. Extraction by pumping over. Gentle maceration during the vatting. The ageing of this 2023 vintage was carried out over a period of 12 to 14 months in French oak barrels (45% new, 20% one wine), in demi-muids (15%), in 30hl foudres (10%) and in amphorae (10%).

Blend

This Château Fleur Cardinale 2023 is the result of a blend of Merlot (56%), Cabernet Franc (37%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (7%).