Chateau Hostens-Picant Cuvée d’Exception Lucullus, Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux 2016 Bottle

Chateau Hostens-Picant Cuvée d’Exception Lucullus, Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux 2016

Stunningly broad, complex and concentrated Merlot-dominated Claret. The flagship wine of this relatively young estate and a pillar of absolute quality.

£48.49

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With the growing success through the early years, in 1998, believing the outstanding qualities of the vintage – particularly for the ‘Right Bank’ properties – were the perfect time, Yves began development of the estate’s flagship “Cuvée d’Exception Lucullus”. A wine only produced in those years when the conditions and quality justify it, the Lucullus’ is made from a careful selection of plots of older vines, where the soils are particularly rich in limestone. Yields are kept low to improve concentration, while the winemaking process is entirely hands-on, and vilification takes place in old used wooden casks. The wine is then racked into barrels, 40% of which are new, where it slowly matures over 15 months.

The estate being just 24km from Saint-Émilion, the Lucullus’ shares much with the more modern and prestigious wines of this appellation. It is an intense, deep and inky black, a first sign of the concentration and quality to come. The nose offers a remarkable complexity, with blackberry, blackcurrant, licorice but also more delicate aromas of peony and black olive. The palate is full, dense and compact at present, with an impressively broad middle, showing the typicity of the ’98 vintage, with more blackcurrant, black cherry, then anise, wood smoke and spice, cinnamon and clove – so typical here, of high quality oak and careful treatment. Its suave tannic frame yields, in time, to a delicious, fresh saline finish.

The wine shows its breadth and structure now and will give ever more pleasure if decanted but, equally, you could tuck it away and enjoy in 15 years time, with ease and confidence.

SKU: HPCE16 Category:

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