2016 Fougas Maldoror
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Tasting notes
The saturated ruby/purple-colored 2016 Château Fougas Maldoror (75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon) is a ripe, beautifully pure, elegant Côtes de Bourg that reveals plenty of bluer fruits, underbrush, and minerality, medium to full-bodied, good mid-palate density, and present, ripe tannins on the finish. It's beautifully balanced, has real class, and I suspect will keep for over a decade. Readers might consider buying a case of this gem.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Fougas Maldoror is very reduced on the nose at the moment and difficult to make out. The palate is hard and masculine, displaying lots of extracted tannin, and the finish is dry and foursquare. Maybe the fruit is hidden at the moment; leave this for another 18 months or so, because it does convey a sense of balance.
The 2016 Fougas Maldoror has a medium to deep garnet-purple color and reveals baked blackberries, Black Forest cake and plum preserves notes with underlying dried herbs and unsmoked cigars hints. Medium-bodied, the palate has a solid frame of chewy tannins and plenty of savory layers, finishing on a meaty note.
Very dry end but very sappy and exciting start even if it falls off a little on the end. You have to admire the ambition! And it's very obviously not a St-Émilion. Actually tastes more like a left-bank wine. (JR)