Chateau La Gaffeliere St-Emilion 2011 750ml
The 2011 Château La Gaffelière, a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, offers elegant and restrained flavors of red and black currants, cedar, and earthy notes. Its medium-to-full body is balanced with firm tannins and a juicy finish. While currently tight, this wine is poised for aging and will evolve beautifully over the next 15-20 years. A true reflection of its exceptional St.-Emilion terroir, it promises complexity and refinement with time.
The Wine Advocate | RP 90-93
Published: Apr 26, 2012
Drink: 2012-2032
One of the oldest family-owned vineyards in St.-Emilion, La Gaffeliere has been owned by the same family since the 1400s. The 2011 performed slightly differently in multiple tastings, but overall, it appears to be an outstanding, elegant, restrained, somewhat austere, but impressively built wine. The final blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc produced nearly 5,000 cases from their 42+ acre vineyard. The wine exhibits lots of earthy, balsam, resiny notes interwoven with red and black currants, cedar and underbrush. This elegant, dense, medium to full-bodied St.-Emilion should drink nicely for 15-20 years.
Jamessuckling.com | JS 91
Published: Mar 25, 2017
An attractive wine with blackberry, black truffle and orange peel character. Medium body, firm tannins. Juicy finish. Drink now.
Decanter | D 91
Published: Mar 22, 2019
Drink: 2021-2040
This takes its time to open, still feeling tight (rather than closed) even at seven years old, with evident tannic grip. You will find some more lyrical 2011s for drinking today, but this has beautifully rich liquorice and blackberry notes once you've teased them out of the glass, and I would be happy to bet on it for the long term.
Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 14.00%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 15% Cabernet Franc 85% Merlot
Jancisrobinson.com | JR 17
Published: Feb 10, 2015
Drink: 2018-2028
Toasty dark fruit. Then more savoury on the palate. Elegant dry tannins, there's refinement here without any attempt to crowd-please. Lithe and dark and long and savoury.
Gaffeliere.com
The alliance of hillside and foothill wines produces a nectar that is both powerful, distinguished, and silky. The magic of this harmony is revealed in each of our cuvées.
Château la Gaffelière stands out for its elegance and precision. In every vintage, this nectar reveals its powerful, racy and silky harmony.
The beginning of winter was cold with periods of snow. However, February and March were warmer, with temperatures over 15°C and light rainfall, bringing about an early start to the vine cycle and earlier than usual bud-break. This weather pattern continued and increased at the beginning of April, resulting in homogeneous and very vigorous vine shooting. From that moment on, the vines had a substantial advance on a normal year and were two weeks ahead of 2010. The flowering was quick, even and with very few shot berries (coulure).This hot, dry weather continued and compounded the problems of water deficit stress in the soils and deficiencies in the vine plant. The heat-wave that occurred on June 26 resulted in sunburnt fruit and vines shutting down. Very luckily, summer turned out to be much more normal with more humid conditions during the ripening phase. As the harvest approached, the grapes displayed good ripeness both in the skins and the tannins.
Harvest : Handpicking from September 9 to 26, 2011
Blend: 85% Merlot 15% Cabernet Franc