2017 Tesseron Estate Pym-Rae

The 2016 is the first harvest from this estate following the purchase of the old Robin Williams vineyard by Chateau Pontet-Canet owner Alfred Tesseron in 2016. The estate includes just under 20 hectares of mature Cabernet Sauvignon (75%), Merlot (18 %) and Cabernet Franc (7 %) vines, planted in 1990. Now officially called "Pym-Rae", respecting the original name given to the vineyard by Robin Williams (Pym and Rae are the middle names of two of Williams' children). The vineyards are elevated at an average elevation of 500 meters on Mount Veeder.

For a family that owns vineyards of exceptional quality such as Pontet-|Canet, a place with great reputation and potential was necessary. An obvious choice was Napa in California. But not just anywhere in the valley. The generous nature of the climate had to be moderated by locally cool conditions: this meant a high altitude vineyard. To produce deep and balanced wines, sedimentary soils were needed with historical marine deposits that developed gradually over millions of years. The Mount Veeder region took care of all this. The vineyard had to be planted with Bordeaux varieties, the same ones the family had experience with in Pontet-Canet. Finally, the vines had to be mature, as only older plants have developed a deep root system, allowing them to extract the purest expression and minerality of the terroir, yielding full-bodied and complex wines. It's not the easiest land to farm, as certain areas are steep and steep, resulting in only a modest grape harvest. It is a remote location, like an island of nature, in the middle of nowhere. All this explains the exclusvity of Teseron Estate and the Pym-Rae already belongs to the absolute world top.