Chateau Haut Rocher 2019
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Parker
Robert -
Suckling
James -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Wong
Wilfred
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
With a beautiful deep color, this Saint-Emilion Grand Cru offers a powerful nose, with aromas of violet, prune, licorice, evolving on spices, truffles, and undergrowth. The palate is ample, balanced, long and fruity. It is a wine for laying down that improves over time. Tasted young, it will seduce with its aromas of fruit and its liveliness.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Composed of 65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Malbec, the deep garnet-purple colored 2019 Haut Rocher has a flamboyant nose of baked raspberries, blueberry pie and warm plums plus suggestions of red roses, forest floor, powdered cinnamon and sage. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers mouth-filling red and black fruit preserves with ripe, rounded tannins and racy acid to support, finishing long and mineral tinged.
Barrel Sample: 90-92+ -
James Suckling
Pretty nose of red plums, cherries, raspberries, chocolate and praline. Medium-bodied with firm, plush tannins. Creamy, velvety and layered. Excellent texture. 65% merlot, 20% cabernet franc, 12% cabernet sauvignon and 3% malbec. Drink after 2023.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Based on 65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon (there's a splash of Malbec in there), the 2019 Château Haut Rocher sports a deep purple color as well as a rocking bouquet of ripe blue fruits, black cherries, candied violets, and sappy green herbs. Medium-bodied, elegant, and downright pretty on the palate, it has solid tannins, notable freshness, and a great finish. It's incredibly floral and certainly has character. It should evolve for 10-15 years.
Barrel Sample: 89-91 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Château Haut Rocher is a well-built Saint-Émilion Grand Cru with great depth than many of its neighbors. TASTING NOTES: This wine has aromas and flavors of red currants, wild herbs, some spiciness, and earthy notes. Pair it with a flavorful mutton stew. (Tasted; August 27, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
Other Vintages
2016-
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Dunnuck
Jeb
Jérôme and Béatrice de Monteil took over the reins in January 2010 and make every effort to produce high quality wines, from the best terroirs of the St Emilion and Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux appellations. For this, they are helped by four employees and work in close collaboration with the oenologist Thomas Duclos and the wine consultant Hervé Briane.
The estate consists of 14 ha of vines, 9 in the St Emilion Grand Cru appellation and 5 in the Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux appellation. The soil of the vines for the St Emilion is clay-limestone in nature with a south/south exposure on the hillside. The Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux benefits from clay-silty soil.
We find the traditional grape varieties of the right bank of Bordeaux: majority Merlot, as well as Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The farm has been in Conversion to Organic Farming since 2019, and labeled HVE 3 (High Environmental Value).
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.