Chateau Cantemerle Cabernet 5th Growth 2010

"Château Cantemerle is a winery in the Haut-Médoc appellation of the Bordeaux wine region of France, in the commune of Macau. The wine produced here was the final estate to be classified as one of eighteen Cinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Its absence from the classification map featured at the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris created some controversy, even though it has been listed on all maps published after 1855." Wikipedia

"Château Cantemerle has been on a tear since the turn of the century and is really making some of the most exciting wines on the entire Left Bank these days. The 2010, which weighs in at a most judicious 13.5% ABV, was raised in 40% new oak. The result is a stellar 2010 that jumps from the glass in a deep, pure, and very classy melange of cassis, sweet dark berries, espresso, cigar ash, gravelly soil tones, and a deft framing of cedary new oak. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and gloriously pure and soil-driven for the vintage, with a superb core of fruit, great focus and balance, and a very long, suave, and ripely tannic finish. Château Cantemerle has a very sure hand at the rudder these days and is currently fashioning the greatest wines in the history of this venerable estate. A very exciting 2010, Cantemerle will need to be cellared a solid decade before broaching." John Gilman