critic reviews
The 2021 La Petite Marquise du Clos du Marquis is made from 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, and 7% Cabernet Franc. Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, it has a vibrant nose of redcurrants, black raspberries, and mulberries, plus hints of wild sage and damp soil. Light to medium-bodied, the palate is a little thin and herbal with a rather short finish.
The 2021 La Petite Marquise du Clos du Marquis contains 34% pressed wine this year, one of the highest amounts ever, and was raised in one 120-hectoliter vat, so there is no new oak here. It has a juicy bouquet courtesy of the Merlot, which imparts raspberry preserve and cranberry scents, all quite lush and forward despite a bit of reduction at the moment. There is a touch of glycerine with time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, plenty of graphite-infused black fruit and a rather tight finish that suggests it will benefit from a couple of years in bottle. (12.95% alcohol)
Emphasis on red berry fruits, firm structure, this has plenty of sculpted slate-filled tannins, but there is a dip through the mid palate, and a lack of concentration overall. 35% press to fill things out, and this is an easy to approach early drinker. 32hl/h yield here after mildew.
There will only be around 18,000 bottles of the 2021 La Petite Marquise, a charming, seamless, medium to full-bodied wine evocative of ripe berries and plums mingled with cigar box and loamy soil. It incorporates a lot of press wine this year, which no doubt explains its impressive mid-palate depth for a second wine in this vintage.