Bordeaux’s most secret wine: Enthusiasm for L’Enthousiaste
db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay reports on a new wine, a rare jewel born from an alliance between a winegrower and an oenologist from Bordeaux’s Left Bank and the Right Bank respectively, which was, until now, a closely guarded secret.
One of the joys of my role as Bordeaux correspondent for thedrinksbusiness.com is that, every now and again, someone shares with me their new project and brings to me a wine that simply blows my socks off. This is one of those occasions and I have decided, in turn, to share it with you.
The wine itself is fascinating, not least because there is both very little of it and relatively little that I can tell you about it. Or, at least, that’s what I was told when I first encountered it. I was envisaging having to write a piece on one of Bordeaux’s most secret of wines, making appropriate virtue of its mystery, intrigue and associated charm. But things have changed recently and I can now disclose just a little more than initially seemed possible.
We’ll come to all of that presently. But first the wine itself.
The wine itself
It comes from … Well, I’m not going to reveal that quite yet. But I can give you some clues. It comes from Bordeaux, but that much you know already. And, to give you just a little more detail without breaking any former confidences, it comes from the right-bank.
The label – or at least, the back label, when it has one – will reveal it to be a simple Vin de France, though it certainly could bear a more prestigious appellation. That it still doesn’t have a back label is perhaps indicative of the ‘confidentialité’ of the project from the outset. The wine in fact hails from a parcel of around 0.5 hectares on the undulating slopes (côteaux) of a much larger property on a truly exceptional terroir of clay-limestone over pure calcaire à astéries. That perhaps also already gives you a sense, if not to the precise identity of the wine itself, then at least to its potential geo-localisation. As someone once said, “you might think so, I couldn’t possible comment” … yet.
So why all this secrecy? The answer is relatively simply. The wine is the product of an alliance between a wine-grower and an oenologist, respectively from the Left Bank and the Right Bank, whose ‘day jobs’ for illustrious properties prevented them from being associated at least publicly with a project of this kind.
As their own description of that project puts it (with my translation from their French), “We had known each other for over ten years. We are winegrowers and oenologists. We are from different shores but our common ideas about working the land and wine gave us a shared vision. We have wanted to work on the same project for a long time. In the 2022 vintage the stars were aligned: exceptional weather conditions on a rare and singular plot”.
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The grand reveal …
So who are ‘they’ and what is the identity of their way? As I said at the start, things have changed. There’s now a little more I can reveal about this wine and the people whose shared vision it represents.
The property is Château Corbin in Montagne Saint-Emilion and this wine, L’Enthousiaste, comes from a single-vineyard plot. It is the product of a collaboration between Jacques Rambeaud, the owner and winemaker of Château Corbin, and Sébastien Vergne, former technical director of Château Margaux itself. Indeed, this is the first project of his new consultancy, ALTA VINA.
That plot is itself planted with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon and the wine is constructed from a selection of the best vats and then aged in 300 litre barrels. The result is miraculous, above all for a first vintage, exuding balance and elegance.
Particularly notable is the remarkable acidity for a vintage so hot and so dry, the silky grace of the mouthfeel and the sheer quality of the fine-grained yet limestone-grippy pixilating tannins.
The wine is intended for the informed amateur and the production, at least for now, is miniscule (less than 3,000 bottles in this, its first vintage). It is distributed by a number of négociants and importers in France, Germany and Italy and it already appears on the wine lists of a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in France, Spain, Italy, Holland and Japan. It is also available directly from [email protected].
Technical data
- Nature of soils: Clay-limestone on calcaire à astéries
- Planting density: 6600 plants/ha
- Average age of vines: 38 years
- Size: Double Guyot
- Harvested: between 13 and 29 September, 2022
- Yield: 35 hl/ha
- Extraction programme: adapted to each tank, resulting from plot selection
- Blend: 53% Merlot, 28% Malbec, 14% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
- Aging: 18 months in 300 litre barrels, 80% of which are newBottles produced: 2574
Tasting Notes
Augustin Leblanc L’Enthousiaste 2022 (Vin de France; 53% Merlot, 28% Malbec, 14% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; a final yield of 35 hl/ha; 14.5% alcohol). Very floral. Aromatic. Spicy too. Fascinating. Explosive. Highly expressive of the vintage. The Cabernet Franc is wonderfully articulate aromatically, the Cabernet Sauvignon giving great intensity to the attack, and the Merlot providing the richness, depth and mid-palate concentration. Creamy. Pure. Quite lifted and vertical. Lavender and violet, lilac, crushed petals. White pepper. Szechuan pepper too. In the mouth, there’s a gentle natural sweetness with lovely, very crumbly, but soft and succulent tannins. It builds in the mouth. Bright crunchy fresh berry fruit with raspberry and loganberry alongside the predominant blueberry and bramble. A little black cherry too. Impressive. Limpid and crystalline. Dynamic, energetic and very lively. Sparkly. Quite saline in its minerality. We return to violet and patchouli on the long, sapid and crumbly-textured finish. 95.
Château Corbin 2020 (Montagne Saint-Emilion; from a property of 23 hectares on slopes of clay and limestone; Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.5% alcohol). Earthy and dusty in its minerality, this is fresh and the signature of the argilo-calcaire terroir is pretty strong, even if the wood is still slightly evident (it’s not dominant, but it doesn’t yet feel seamlessly integrated). This is a little closed aromatically and a little slender in frame and lean on the finish. What I do like is the spherical shape the fruit forms in the mouth, but there’s not really quite the stuffing or density to sustain this – it becomes rather etiolated on the finish. That said, it does linger on the palate, just in a rather wispy way. One senses perhaps that the Merlot is a little riper than the Cabernet here, as there are shades of green (green peppers, green peppercorns and herbal elements) that render this a touch austere on the finish even in a vintage such as this. The Cabernet tannins are also just a tad green. Quite ferrous in its minerality in the empty glass. The wine fills out a little with aeration, but it remains rather more protestant than catholic! 88+.
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