Name: Château d'Aiguilhe: Chateau d’Aiguilhe 2022 - Castillon
Brand: Piemont Express
SKU: CDA-CDA-2022
Price: 24.9 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

Alkohol

14.0 % vol

Rebsorten

Merlot
Cabernet Franc

Region

Bordeaux

90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.

D‘ Aiguilhe is Stephan Graf Neipperg’s Castillon. The appellation has had a breathtaking rise over the past ten years. So has Stephan Neipperg with his d’Aiguilhe. Castillon has become the direct contender to Saint-Émilion. And rightly so. Mostly limestone soil and Merlot-based wines.

35 hectoliters yield per hectare. Aged 30% in new barriques. 14.3% alcohol by volume. Harvested from September 5th to 22nd. Followed by 32 days of fermentation.

The flavor here is again full of licorice, violet, and black fruit. Blackberry and mulberry, sweet and rich. A dense velvet carpet, orange zest, and beneath that a fine exotic note with passion fruit. Stylish nougat note as well. On the palate, lots of sloe berry, also cranberry, somewhat dry, sour cherry, and red currant. Lots of red fruit intensity and freshness. Elegant salty note, the tannins are polished.

Not a great wine, but an extremely stylish, delicious, and fine Castillon, with surprising freshness despite the alcohol.

2022 is not as extremely spicy as the outstanding year 2019 and not quite as delicately refined as 2020. Experienced winemakers rather speak of a clearly more perfect reincarnation of the vintages 1982, 1961, and 1949.

This was the driest summer in France since records began and overall the hottest year since 1947. Not as extreme and suddenly hot as 2003, but rather evenly warm, promoting harmony, and very dry.

After heavy rain in November and December 2021, the following months remained dry and warm. The vines could therefore slowly adapt to the dryness during an even flowering. The terroirs with the best water retention properties and very deep-rooted old vines were able to use the winter and spring water reserves relatively easily through the dry summer after an early and sunny flowering.

Rain only returned in June and then in the second half of August with 30 to 50mm. After that, it stayed sunny and dry with a long "Indian Summer" well into October and even November. Everyone could wait for the perfect harvest time, especially since there was no sugar-alcohol pressure due to summer stagnations.

Those with old vines and perfect terroirs who were spared from the increasingly frequent April frost and the too frequent hailstorms of early summer could, especially as organic winemakers, rejoice over the complete absence of rot and fungal diseases. No one had to spray anything at all.

For organic winemakers with old vines and superb terroir, 2022 was therefore a perfect year never experienced before. Especially since over the past 10 extreme years, they have become accustomed to better-adapted leaf and soil management.

Saint Emilion’s and Castillon’s limestone cliffs, Pomerol’s and Fronsac’s clay soils, and the thick gravel lenses of the Médoc had hardly any worries with very old vine stocks, except for the downside of slightly lower yields.

Abgefüllt durch

Comtes von Neipperg Vineyards
BP 34, 33330 Saint-Émilion, France

Allergene

Enthält Sulfite

Winzer

Château d'Aiguilhe

Just 20 years ago, the wines from the "Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux" region were virtually unknown. Stephan, Count of Neipperg, a native German from Württemberg and owner of Canon la Gaffelière and La Mondotte, was one of the first to recognize the potential of the region.

Because of this potential, Count von Neipperg decided to acquire Château d’Aiguilhe in 1998. The château, dating back to the 13th century, is located in a prime spot in Castillon. The limestone plateau on which the vineyards lie is an almost perfect terroir, very similar to the slopes of Saint Emilion. The topsoil consists of limestone with clay and loam; the deeper you go, the higher the limestone content, and after a few meters, you find almost exclusively these wonderful limestone soils. The drainage is excellent, so even in wet years there is no waterlogging. However, the limestone retains enough water to prevent drought stress in warm years.

Thanks to the southern exposure of the vineyards, everything ripens nicely; the location of d’Aiguilhe is nearly perfect. The vineyard is planted with 80 percent Merlot and 20 percent Cabernet Franc, while the white wine is made from 100 percent Sauvignon Blanc.

The vines at Château d’Aiguilhe are already relatively old at nearly 30 years and have deep root systems, which is incredibly important for supporting the vines with minerals, especially given the extreme weather conditions of recent years that have made it difficult for the vines. Of the 140 hectares belonging to Château d’Aiguilhe, only 90 hectares are used for viticulture.

The price-to-enjoyment ratio at Château d’Aiguilhe is particularly high – you get an incredible amount of wine for the money.

Journalists also praise the wine year after year. With the support of his brilliant oenologist Derenoncourt, Stephan Count von Neipperg acquired very interesting sites and invested heavily in the quality of the vineyards.

However, the style of the wines corresponds more to the limestone slopes of Saint Emilion, as experienced in perfection at Larcis Ducasse and Pavie. Despite all the class of Château d’Aiguilhe, such a comparison would still be presumptuous.