2012 Chateau Penin Bordeaux Superior Tradition 750 ml

A superior Supérieur

Many notches above your typical Bordeaux Supérieur, Château Penin has been in the same family since 1854. Louis Carteyron and his son Jacques purchased the property in the same year that Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote about a detective named Sherlock Holmes, and the French fashion label Louis Vuitton was founded. Initially growers, the Carteyrons released their first château-bottled wine in 1964 under the guidance of Hubert, the fourth generation of family ownership.

After Hubert’s son Patrick, an established oenologist, assumed direction of Château Penin in 1982, he pulled out fruit trees to make room for vineyards, marking the beginning of the estate’s renaissance. Patrick also built a new temperature-controlled winery and cellar, and the combined efforts elevated the wines from this estate into a league of its own amongst Bordeaux Supérieur — a superior Supérieur, so to speak.

The estate itself is 32 acres on the Left Bank of the Dordogne River, across from Saint-Émilion. The soil is pure St.-Émilion — gravel and pebble topsoils washed downriver from overlying red sand and galets. Patrick Carteyron leads Château Penin in the type of vineyard management more usually associated with the top properties of the Right Bank, including rigorous shoot and crop-thinning to ensure perfect ripeness, resulting in a St.-Émilion Grand Cru-caliber wine.

The winemaking is no less fastidious. For this wine, plots are selected at harvest according to the age of the vines, the grape varieties, and ripening. The grapes are gently destemmed, then the pressed juice of each lot spends nearly a month in individual tanks prior to careful blending and before aging for a year.

The 2012 Château Penin Bordeaux Supérieur is 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cabernet Franc from 100% estate fruit grown on a property facing St-Émilion. Deep purple color with pungent aromas of dark cherry, smoke, licorice, savory herbs, and rose petals. It’s all flesh on the palate with serious density and silkiness. Round, voluptuous, and racy, the 2012 boasts gorgeous depth and exceptional balance, especially at this level. There is so much to like here, most importantly the price. Enjoy now-2020.

St.-Émilion Grand Cru quality at an AOC Bordeaux price. $18.99 for WineAccess members. We look forward to hearing from the members who stock up on a case of this serious sleeper. We don’t look forward to hearing from those of you who miss out.