2020 Chateau Le Puy Cuvee Barthelemy

From the Côtes de Franc comes this refined red wine, a blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is Château Le Puy's flagship wine. Unlike other Bordeaux wines, they don't first make separate wines and then blend them into a unique cuvée. No. They harvest everything together and then prepare the wine entirely together. This, admittedly, extremely rare method results in a more complex texture, with distinct flavors derived from the different yeasts, grapes, and plots.

Barthelemy is a highly sought-after wine and is among the most popular in Japan. This is largely due to the fact that Le Barthélemy 2003 was recognized in a Japanese comic series about wine, "The Drops of God," as the wine that could ever exceed expectations. Sales subsequently skyrocketed. The entire 2003 vintage sold out in just a few days. Today, Château Le Puy is "The most popular wine in Tokyo and the surrounding area." And the icing on the cake: a Château Le Puy store in Singapore.

Barthelemy La Cuvée is made from a selection of the finest vineyards and vinified without added sulfur, with long aging in barrels. The nose reveals beautiful aromas of plums, blackcurrant, cedar, spices, pepper, toasted almonds, and chocolate. The palate is incredibly complex and, above all, impressively balanced.

The wine has been aged for 24 hours in oak barrels (deliberately not new oak, as the grapes should dominate). It comes from a vineyard on a limestone/rocky plateau, cultivated without artificial fertilizers, herbicides, or insecticides, and harvested manually. Fermentation is long and vinified without the addition of sulfur.

Château Le Puy, "Famille Amoreau de père en fils" (Famille Amoreau, father and son) since 1610. Not Bordeaux made like thirty years ago, but Bordeaux made like 100 or 200 years ago. No chemical sprays (biodynamic farming) in the vineyard, no additives during vinification (neither sugar, yeast, sulfites, or anything else), aged in old "foudres" and barriques, and unfiltered. Château Le Puy is one of the few Bordeaux wines you'll find on the tasting table in trendy wine circles, among natural wines, Jura, Beaujolais, and Loire. The label reads "Expression originale du Terroir," and that's no empty marketing slogan. Château Le Puy: the Bordeaux for the post-Bordeaux era.