Château Puyblanquet 2021

An elegant and rich Saint-Emilion wine

The estate

Owned by the Malet Roquefort family from 1819 to 1959, Chateau Puyblanquet returned to the family fold in 2020, over 60 years after the sale of the estate went through.

The vineyard

Chateau Puyblanquet watches over a 19-hectare single-block vineyard. The vines are planted on a limestone plateau as well as on clay-limestone slopes and give rise to an elegant and complex Saint-Emilion wine. Chateau Puyblanquet’s wines are vinified by the teams at Chateau La Gaffeliere (Saint-Emilion), also owned by the Malet Roquefort family.

The vintage

2021 was marked by extreme and unstable weather conditions, causing the vines to experience distress. The cool start to the season, punctuated by frosts, preceded a summer season during which the high humidity increased the pressure of mildew. The cool, sunny days in September preceded a mild month of October, which was ideal for refining the ripening process. The harvest dates were defined based on each terroir, in order to harvest ripe and perfectly healthy grapes in a plot-by-plot manner.

Vinification and aging

Following the harvest, the grapes are sorted based on their density and then vinified by parcel in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Alcoholic fermentation is followed by pumping over and punching down. Malolactic fermentation in vats. Vatting time for 25 to 30 days for the Merlot varietal and 30 days for the Cabernet Franc grapes. The wine is aged for 12 months in barrels (50% of which are new).

The blend

Chateau Puyblanquet 2021 is a blend of Merlot (75%) and Cabernet Franc (25%).