The Wines of ABK6 Family Estate, 2025
ABK6 is a new name in the Bordeaux region, although there will be nothing novel about this name to those who habitually look a little further north for their drinking.
Having initially started out in wine, born into a family of winegrowers in the south of France, ABK6 founder Francis Abécassis moved into Cognac more than twenty years ago, setting up in Claix, in the Charente département. With his recent investment in Bordeaux, creating a new range of appellation and Vin de France wines under the ABK6 brand (if you were wondering about the brand name, Abécassis and ABK6 are homonyms – provided your French pronunciation is up to scratch, that is!), Francis has seemingly come back to his roots.
The Cognac side of the ABK6 business is self-sustaining, the fruit all coming from the Abécassis family’s vineyards which are spread across more than 460 hectares of the Charente. Everything, from viticulture and harvest, through to the vinifications, aging and blending is done in-house. The wine project follows the same mantra, with 126 hectares of vines dotted around fairly new and capacious cellars in Sauveterre-de-Guyenne, which sits at the eastern edge of Entre-Deux-Mers. The cellars are, in truth, much closer to Duras than to the city of Bordeaux, but the vineyards here have the Bordeaux appellation.
Working with their head winemaker Adeline Magère, who has oversight of the Bordeaux project as well as the winemaking in Cognac, Francis Abécassis and daughter Elodie therefore have plenty of raw material to work with. I expect a lot of said material is Merlot, although they have not been restrained by details as minor as this; the result of their efforts is a discrete portfolio of four cuvées, two each in white and red. Like the ABK6 Cognacs, the presentation of the wines is energetic and modern.
In this short report I take a look at this small range of wines, in the 2024 vintage.
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