On the Bench -four French wines that beautifully balance tradition, freshness, and value.
Château Faget, Saint-Estèphe 2023
Chevalier Noël, Bordeaux Supérieur 2020
Château Hauterive, Médoc 2022
Château Bellevue la Forêt, Fronton 2024
Château Faget, Saint-Estèphe 2023
A small, high-quality producer in the northern Médoc region of Saint-Estèphe, renowned for wines of power, depth, and longevity. The 6.5-hectare property is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon (60 %), Merlot (30%), and Cabernet Franc (10%). The 2023 vintage in Bordeaux produced some exceptionally good wines, many in a newer, fresher style. This wine is one of them, and it is delightful.
Aromas of red fruits, violets, and cassis are complemented by some graphite notes and a hint of freshly roasted coffee beans. The wine is a medium-bodied dry red with lovely poise and finesse to accompany its depth and presence on the palate. The red fruits and creamy notes glide onto the palate with a lovely core of ripe fruit. The back palate has a savoury finish; there is some clove and tobacco leaf, gently folded into tannins that are fine and powdery. At just three years of age, it still has its head down and its elbows tucked in; it’s all clean, pristine, and waiting a few more years to give full expression to itself. However, it is still drinking beautifully right now in the freshness and flush of its youth.
This is a delightful Saint-Estèphe —from a region renowned for weighty wines of strength, power, and depth— it shows elegance, charm, and sophistication.
91/100
Chevalier Noël, Bordeaux Supérieur 2020
The year 2020 is considered a majestic vintage in Bordeaux, producing wines built to age and reward those with a good cellar and plenty of patience. Chevalier Noël is a blend of Merlot (80%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (20%).
Aromatically, the wine displays a lovely perfume of plums, black cherries, and currants, with some dusty bramble notes, and a sprinkle of five-spice. The palate reveals a medium-bodied dry red with inviting plum and forest berries all swirled into a touch of vanilla yoghurt. It’s all very subtle, seductive, and very definitely approachable, with tannins as sheer and fine as a pair of silk stockings. Eminently drinkable and one of the Bordeaux bargains of 2020.
90/100
Château Hauterive, Médoc 2022
Château Hauterive, near the township of Saint-Germain-d’Esteuil, sits on an elevated position in the Médoc. It is recorded that Charles de Gaulle was a regular guest here. The wine is a blend of Merlot (64%), Cabernet Sauvignon (33%), and Petit Verdot (3%) from the 2022 vintage, considered by many to be one of the finest vintages in recent memory.
On the bouquet, there are aromas of coffee grounds, chocolate, tobacco leaf, black fruits, liquorice, and some baking spices. The palate shows a mid-weight dry red with ripe berries and fine tannins, simpler, brooding, and moodier than some of the fresher, new-style Bordeaux reds; this has more classic traits. It still needs a little time but is drinking well early, which is a hallmark of the vintage. There is commendable value here.
88/100
Château Bellevue La Forêt ‘Originel’, rouge, Fronton 2024
From the Fronton region in southwest France, a Toulouse vineyard terraced on the wide slopes between the Garonne and Tarn rivers. The red variety Négrette dominates the appellation and makes up 40-50 percent of all red blends. The variety is believed to have been propagated throughout the region by the Knights Templar, who brought cuttings with them from Cyprus.
This wine is a blend of Négrette (55%), Syrah (20%), Cabernet Sauvignon (15%), and Cabernet Franc (10%).
Négrette is a late-flowering, early-ripening vine known for its vigorous canopy. The wine shows good colour, dark plum, opaque, and brooding. Grown in soils rich in iron and quartz, the wine shows complex and intriguing aromas of dark plum, cassis, blueberry, violets, graphite, coffee grounds, liquorice, five-spice, gingerbread, field herbs, and peppercorns.
The palate explodes with creamy forest berries and baking spices, rich, juicy, full, and complex. The mid-palate is generous and attractive; tannins are fine, soft, with a touch of sage, eucalyptus, and spice. There is a lot of charm and drinkability to the wine, making it another very affordable, good buy.
89/100
Darren Gall
