2016 Château Fombrauge St.-Émilion Grand Cru 750 ml

The 2016 Château Fombrauge St.-Émilion Grand Cru is the kind of first-class Right Bank Bordeaux that we seek out at any price—it just so happens that you can cellar a case for what you’d pay for one bottle from Bordeaux’s biggest names.

A stunning bottle that Antonio Galloni of Vinous summed up as “simply impeccable,” it was crafted by Michel Rolland, the Right Bank-born genius who has earned countless 100-point scores en route to revolutionizing Bordeaux winemaking. He serves at the pleasure of Fombrauge owner Bernard Magrez, the brilliant vintner (also of 100-point Château Pape Clément) who Robert Parker called “one of Bordeaux’s most interesting visionaries.” 

Pour a glass, and that vision, that talent, and Fombrauge’s incredible terroir all shine through. Showing a youthful deep-purple color, the wine blossoms with intense aromas of dark plums, macerated cherries, mocha, pipe tobacco, clove, and wild violets. Lush and full thanks to the beautiful 2016 vintage, the palate of plum and blackberry is augmented by complex hints of oak and toast, while velvety tannins carry each sip to a long and luxurious finish. 

We recommend you pour this for your wine-loving friends, side by side with one of the big-name bottles of St.-Émilion. Watch their reaction when you tell them you discovered the Fombrauge on Wine Access... and how little you paid.

Château Fombrauge boasts a long, distinguished history in St.-Émilion. Sitting on the site of a Carthusian monastery, Fombrauge was established in the 15th century by Jacques de Canolle, and the first grapes were harvested there in 1599. Just five families owned the estate over the centuries, before Bernard Magrez purchased it in 1999. Today, the Fombrauge château includes a museum, which displays some of the archaeological treasures that have been discovered on the estate, some of which date back to the Iron Age.

Because of its sprawling footprint, the estate boasts what they call “typicity in diversity”: Thanks to the varied soil types, microclimates, and exposures, it enjoys a vintage-to-vintage consistency that is the envy of their neighbors. But their incredible site didn’t have to bail them out during the spectacular 2016 vintage—it just gave them more angles from which to soak up one of the greatest growing seasons in the last two decades. 

The result is one of the greatest bottles Antonio Galloni of Vinous has ever tasted from the estate, and one that we think stands with some of the greats of St.-Émilion. Aged in barriques and larger-format oak, it’s showing off the excellent Fombrauge terroir, as portrayed by two masters, and is perfect for early drinking and mid-term cellaring.