Château Cartier 2016
Run by Alain Moueix
Technical Director Laurent Nougaro
Vintage weather conditions
2016 will be remembered as an improbable, ultimately rare vintage shaped by contrasts. It was characterised by an extremely damp spring followed by a particularly dry summer. Everything began under auspicious circumstances with early budding. This head start was quickly reduced by a rather cool and very damp period from March to June. Downy mildew became the main concern. Amid this threat to the vine’s overall cycle, the skies brightened for ten days, enabling quick, complete flowering. Summer arrived from 21 June in hot and above all extremely dry form throughout the season. Rainfall on 13 September, vital to ease the vines, allowed harvests to be performed at leisure.
Harvest area*
16,70 hectares
Harvest terroir*
clay-limestone soil on the slopes and clay-silt at the foot of the slopes
Grapes harvested*
100% Merlot
Harvest dates
28 September to 11 October
Winemaking
Cultivation methods
Vin biologique, Agriculture France,
FR- BIO-07
Vin biodynamique, contrôlé par ECOCERT France SAS
Maturation
75% barrels and 25% in vats
Yield
50 hectolitres / ha
Production
45.600 bottles
* For this Vintage.
Tasting notes
Carmine red with splashes of bright purple.
A complex nose of fresh fruit (cherry), flowers (violet), biscuit and soft spice. On the palate, the wine is fine and tart in the attack. The utterly refined mid-palate reflects the nose with its fresh fruit notes (grenadine, currant), enhanced by present minerality and silky tannins. A taut, lingering finish.