Château Cantemerle Haut-Médoc 2022

Left off Bordeaux's 1855 classification by accident — until the estate's owner marched to the Chamber of Commerce and argued her way back on as a fifth growth.

Grape Varietals & Region: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc from Haut-Médoc, planted on the appellation's southern edge close to the Margaux border — which shows up as a distinctly perfumed, Margaux-leaning style rather than the burlier Cabernet you'd expect further north. Cantemerle's history is unusually dramatic for a fifth growth: the estate was left off the original 1855 list entirely, an omission its owner at the time, Caroline de Villeneuve, refused to accept — she took her case to the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce that same September and won the estate its rightful place. It was also hit harder than any other Médoc classified growth by the phylloxera crisis, then by downy mildew through the 1880s, and took decades to fully recover.

Taste Profile: Floral in character, with fresh black raspberries, dark cherries, espresso bean and earth on the nose. Medium-bodied, elegant, clean and fresh, finishing on sweet, ripe dark red fruit.

Winemaking Process: Young vines are vinified separately in stainless steel, with malolactic fermentation completed in vat before the wine moves to barrel — 40 to 50% new French oak, aged for 12 to 16 months depending on the vintage. It's a meticulous, unhurried process overseen by technical director Pascal Berteau, and it shows: Robert Parker's Wine Advocate called the 2022 “the finest wine this estate has produced in some time.”

Winemaker: Laure Canu took over as general manager in 2021, arriving after five years as deputy general manager at Château Angélus — a Saint-Émilion first growth, and about as serious a finishing school as Bordeaux offers. Since then she and Berteau have been steadily sharpening Cantemerle's focus, and the 2022 is the clearest evidence yet of where that work is heading.