Chateau Malartic Lagraviere PESSAC LEOGNAN Rouge 2016

Extreme weather conditions resulted in an exceptional vintage A particularly wet winter and spring promised good yields. One of the best summers of the decade, with a long dry period, brought power and concentration. A remarkable late season, with substantial differences in temperatures, ensured elegance for this exceptional vintage. Each of these stages, with an extreme climatology, has been chained with a perfect tempo: This is the singularity of this vintage. Flowering was rapid and uniform and summer extremely hot and dry. But Malartic vines’ deep roots were able to find water reserves in the clay-limestone subsoil and benefit fully from the summer heat. The grapes changed colour with the same uniformity as the flowering. After the very dry conditions, the rain on 13 September (40 mm) was welcome. An Indian summer lasted through to the end of the harvests with some big differences between the day and night-time temperatures, encouraging the accumulation of anthocyanins and aromatic richness. For the red wines, the vintage is in the "exceptional" category. We have rarely seen such substance and balance in both polyphenolic and aromatic terms. Long and slow ripening has refined the tannins and developed complexity in the flavours and aromas, while maintaining plenty of freshness. Exceptional and superb.