2016 Chateau de Pez St. Estephe Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel

• Top Performing Cru Bourgeois year after year
• Pichon Longueville & Cristal Champagne Connection
• 98pt Vintage, WA
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About the Wine

Founded in the 15th century, Pez is the oldest Domaine in Saint-Estèphe. The Pontac family, then-owners of Château Haut-Brion, gave Pez its vineyards. The property remained in the hands of descendants until the French Revolution. Sold as a property of the state, the Domaine belonged to a succession of families until 1995, when it was purchased by Champagne Louis Roederer.

Château de Pez is in Bordeaux’s Left Bank and consists of 74 continuous acres with 64 acres planted mostly with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Thanks to the quality of its production, Château de Pez is counted among the most highly reputed crus of the Médoc and was reclassified as a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in 2003. Pez joined six of the original nine exceptional Cru Bourgeois outside of the 2010 Cru Bourgeois classification to market themselves as Les Exceptionnels. 

The appellation of St. Estèphe is unique by its proximity to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde River. The soil consists of gravel over clay, providing good drainage and a temperate, maritime climate, which is excellent for the maturation of the grapes. 

Pez’s philosophy is to use a natural approach to vineyard management, limiting the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides.

The wines are left to ferment in traditional oak vats before being blended and left to develop for a period of 16 to 18 months in oak barrels, 40% of them new.

Pez is an elegant wine with a fine balance and soft tannins, not rustic and masculine like traditional Saint-Estèphe wines.

Reviews

The 2016 de Pez appears to be benefitting from a long-term replanting program at the estate. This is a blend of 53% Merlot, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.5% Petit Verdot, and 1.5% Cabernet Franc. The IPT is quite high at 80, and there is 13.9% alcohol. It has a pure and comely bouquet with black cherries and blackcurrant pastilles, just a touch of crushed violets that emerge with time. The palate is really quite lovely: very well balanced with a fine line of acidity, quite saline in the mouth, perhaps the finest tannic structure that I have encountered during many years of tasting this Saint Estèphe, with a long persistent finish. Maybe this is the "dark horse" of the appellation this year. ~92-94 Wine Advocate

One of the many estates on the Pez plateau in Saint-Estèphe, this property is at the top of its game. Owned by the same proprietors as Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, the wine has structure, big tannins as well as dense black fruits. Drink from 2024. ~93 Wine Enthusiast

St.-Estèphe is supposed to be a robust and hard wine, but this is elegant and sophisticated with fine, cassis and lemon-peel aromas, polished tannins, and a long, rather delicate finish. Drink or hold. ~93 James Suckling

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