Closerie Saint Roc – Les Pins

The first releases of new plot selection wines from Closerie St Roc (the other being Les Noyers), made in very limited quantity. Hailing from Puisseguin, but almost literally at the gates of St.Emilion and Pomerol. Les Pins comes from a 1.3 hectare parcel of predominantly clay-silt soil over fossil rich limestone bedrock, with great sunshine exposure. Made from 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc the wine is naturally vinified using indigenous yeast, with no sulphur addition, fining or filtering. On the nose, this is immediately open, and rich, less taut and less austere than Les Noyers.  Poised and very elegant with some light earth and spice, it has more of a ferrous character to the saline minerality.  The fruit profile has stone fruit notes (red cherries and plum skin), with a little bramble and raspberry; a hint of black tea leaf too.  Broad on the attack, with super-svelte tannins that fan out to reveal the breadth and girth of this impressive wine right from the start; then the crumbly chalky tannins start to grip, bringing the wine back to its mineral-charged spine.  Very classical and yet at the same time a very pure expression of a singular and distinct terroir, marked very much at this stage by the ferrous salinity.