Château de Fonbel

Château de Fonbel, St Emilion Grand Cru, 2022

Name: Château de Fonbel, St Emilion Grand Cru
Brand: Château de Fonbel
Price: 127.22 GBP

90/100

Inside Bordeaux

92-94/100

The Wine Independent

89-91/100

Vinous

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2022
6x75cl
DP
£127.22
2022
6x75cl
DP
£127.22

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

This 16 hectare estate on the St Emilion plain has a sandy, gravelly terroir, but despite the humble situation, Fonbel produces some sensational wines - hardly surprising given that this estate is managed by the father and daughter team of Alain and Pauline Vauthier. Produced from 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Carmenère, the 2022 offers an attractive bouquet of wild berries and fragrant dark fruits. The palate is packed with vivid, bright blackcurrant, hedgerow fruits and a hint of liquorice. Nicely judged tannins. Fresh and breezy. Very good.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

89-91/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2022 Château de Fonbel was picked from 15 to 28 September and matured in 30% barrel, the rest in stainless steel. It has a lifted nose with a subtle oyster shell tincture, vibrant with a sorbet-like freshness. The palate is medium-bodied with a lightly spiced entry, modest depth, vanilla and cinnamon infusing the black fruit with a nicely detailed finish. Give this just a couple of years in bottle.

drinking window 2027 - 2042

date of review 05/2023

92-94/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

The 2022 de Fonbel is a blend of 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Carmenere and has a deep garnet-purple color. It flies out of the glass with energetic notes of crushed blackberries, boysenberries, and raspberry coulis, leading to suggestions of Indian spices, pencil shavings, and iron ore. The full-bodied palate is concentrated and opulent, delivering mouth-watering freshness contrasted with powerful, firm, rounded tannins, finishing very long and fruity. Impressive!

drinking window 2027 - 2047

date of review 05/2023

90/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Black cherry, blueberry and cassis fruits on the opening beats, this is an intense Fonbel that leans into the vintage character but always stays on the right side of balance. A good quality wine with clear ageing ability, a little less immediately charming that in less highly charged vintages. Clay-sand soils with areas of gravel. Cellar master Philippe Baillarguet. 30% new oak. Harvest September 15 to 21, with the unusual addition of Carmanère in the blend.

drinking window 2025 - 2038

date of review 05/2023

product details

Specifications

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abv:

12.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.