Château Capbern: Tasting & Drinking
Having burst onto the en primeur scene with the 2009 vintage, Château Capbern has become a regular fixture in my tasting calendar. The wine is generally convincing, even though those vintages which followed the property’s ‘relaunch’, including 2011, 2012 and certainly 2013, were less than kind.
More recent vintages showcased not only the work of Vincent Millet but also the new investments that have been made here, especially the new vat-room which was finished in 2010. The 2014 vintage, for example, makes plain the good quality of this vintage in the very northern Médoc (much more so than appellations further south) and the 2016 vintage is equally admirable. The 2015 vintage is pretty good, but this was stronger on the right bank than the left, and on this estate I actually prefer the 2017 vintage, the Capbern vineyards seemingly having escaped major frost damage. The 2018 has serious promise, while early encounters with the 2019 vintage felt a little overdone, something I was able to confirm when retasting from bottle.
I found a similar problem with the 2022 vintage, which declared 15% on the label, with a profile to match on the palate. I thought the 2020 vintage was a much greater success, and I am sure I would rather drink this or indeed the 2023 vintage in preference. Both the 2021 and 2024 vintages reflect the challenges presented by the season; they will both be best drunk younger rather than older.
Sadly I have no real experience of tasting or drinking the wine in maturity, nevertheless with a firm yet composed structure, plenty of fruit and texture, and bright acidity, the better vintages feel balanced and correct, with obvious cellaring potential. With Vincent Millet making them, whose talents are plain to see when tasting the more widely appreciated wines of Château Calon-Ségur, this should come as no surprise. I have no reason not to believe that the highlighted vintages will evolve in a very healthy manner, just as the wines of many other unclassified châteaux in the St Estèphe appellation do.
This is a wine to buy and cellar in recommended vintages, when it will give a great deal of pleasure, at a price which is more than fair. (21/5/14, updated 8/11/15, 4/11/20, 15/12/25)
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