The freshness and finesse of a Saint-Julien wine
Sensory Features:The 2022 Léoville Poyferré has turned out very nicely, offering up aromas of crème de cassis, cherries, violets and creamy new oak, followed by a medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy palate that's ripe but lively, with supple tannins and a long, vanillin-inflected finish. This year, the team began picking their Merlot comparatively early and didn't perform a saignée (tank bleed), given the natural concentration of the vintage, though it remains the most flamboyant and demonstrative of the three Léoville estates, seeing some 80% new oak with malolactic fermentation in barrique for the new barrels.
Grape Varieties: 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4 % Cabernet Franc & 4% Petit Verdot.
Estate: Château Léoville Poyferré, Médoc Second Cru Classé in 1855, which finds its origins in the early 17th century, is one of the most prestigious estates in the Saint-Julien appellation on the Left Bank of the Bordeaux region. Masterfully run by the Cuvelier family and neighbours of illustrious estates such as Pichon Baron and Léoville Las Cases, Château Léoville Poyferré benefits from a terroir renowned for its poor Garonne gravel soils, ideal for the vineyard to flourish. In a perpetual quest for perfection, the vinification of each plot is monitored by oenologist Michel Rolland, to gently extract the most authentic expression from each grape variety and each plot. The wines of Château Léoville Poyferré dazzle with their elegance, depth, balance and power.
Vineyard: Château Léoville Poyferré 2022 is aSaint-Julien winethat stems from a 60-hectare vineyard where vines are on average 42 years old, planted on terrasses of Mindel gravel on clay-sand subsoils.
Winemaking & Ageing: Harvested by hand in crates, the bunches are meticulously sorted to ensure that only the best quality grapes are kept. Vinification is carried out on a plot-by-plot basis in temperature-controlled stainless steel truncated-cone vats. Selection by plot, cold pre-fermentation maceration before alcoholic fermentation using selected yeasts, followed by malolactic fermentation in new barrels. The wine is aged for 18 to 20 months in French oak barrels (80% new, 20% single-vineyard).
