Two from Château Quintus, 2019
A visit to Château Quintus, now an essential stop-off on any tasting tour of Bordeaux, frequently yields more tasting notes than expected. Last year, visiting the château for the first time since it was taken over by Domaine Clarence Dillon, I was expecting to find only the 2017 barrel samples waiting for me, so was pleasantly surprised when manager François Capdemourlin offered to pour two mini-verticals of both the first and second wines. It was clear, even just tasting a handful of vintages in this manner, that the team are really getting to grips with this new acquisition, and quality here is now streets ahead of the very first vintages. Prince Robert and his right-hand man Jean-Philippe Delmas started out here in 2011, but the wines only really started to pique my interest with the 2015 and 2016 vintages. And 2018 is the best yet, by far.
On my most recent visit, when I tasted those 2018 samples, François also offered a chance to revisit the 2017 vintage, currently still in élevage. I wasn’t going to refuse.
The 2017 Vintage
Sandwiched between the gloriously fresh and flavoursome 2016 vintage, and the atypically rich but delicious 2018 vintage, the 2017 vintage is at risk of being overlooked (which may of course be to the advantage of consumers). It was a challenging year, when frost laid waste to much of the Bordeaux vineyard in April. Here at Château Quintus the vines were well protected though, as they run up to and over the limestone côtes to the west of the town of St Emilion. Only the vines that run onto the plateau at the foot of the slope would be at risk, and the fruit from these vines would never find its way into the grand vin anyway. The yields were thus close to normal, and the team did not face the difficult decision of how to deal with first- and second-generation fruit in the same vineyard, which was a common theme at a number of St Emilion estates.
