Chateau Quinault L’Enclos 2002
Aromas of blueberry/raspberry, prunes, minerals, and toasty oak. On palate, creamy, concentrated, rich, persistent, and intense. Fruit is of high purity and is very neat. A sweet mid-palate adds to the wine’s fragrant personality. Moreover, it is rich, persistent, and intense. This is a non-filtered well-made St. Emilion a la style "super cuvees" or "garage wines”, despite the frost of 2002.
I do have sentiments for wines from Alain Reynaud, because I am indebted to his teachings on tasting. To me, to be able to taste this 2002 represents a capture of one historical moment in the glass as well as the achievements of an era showing the unique Alain Reynaud +Michel Rolland+ Denis Dubourdieu style. For this vintage, malolactic fermented in barrels, this wine is aged an average of 50% new, French oak barrels for up to 18 months. It is made forward, sweet, ripe, round and supple that drank well young (young, by claret standard of at least 10 to 12 years), versus the current ‘Cheval Blanc+Pierre Lurton’ style for more freshness, less oak, more Cabernet, higher yields.
This 2002 is of low yields of 38 hectoliters per hectare. The 20-hectare Right Bank vineyard of vineyard has a terroir of sand, gravel and clay soil. The vineyard is planted to 83% Merlot , 12% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon . Many of the vines are close to, or over 50 years of age. The oldest parts of the vineyards were planted all the way back in 1934.
In 2008 Alain Raynaud sold Chateau Quinault L’Enclos to the owners of Chateau Cheval Blanc , Bernard Arnault and Albert Frère. Today, Pierre Lurton and his talented team from Cheval Blanc now manage Chateau Quinault L’Enclos. After the purchase, the estate switched to organic farming in 2009. In 2012, they earned their certification for being completely organic in their farming methods. Starting with the 2014 vintage, Chateau Quinault L’Enclos began to include the Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend for the first time.
Less than 3500 cases of Chateau Quinault L’Enclos are made each year.
