2025 Fontenil
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Tasting notes
The 2025 Fontenil comes across quite poised on the nose, with attractive blueberry and plummy scents, becoming quite floral in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied, with an intense, quite sweet entry, showy at first, though it shows decent restraint on the finish. Two samples were quite different from each other; I preferred the one poured at Rolland Labs, which I felt was more representative.
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Average Score
Neal Martin
James Suckling
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A serious, sexy wine that readers should seek out in just about every vintage, the 2025 Château Fontenil offers blacker fruits, roasted herbs, chocolate, and spicy nuances on the nose. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it's focused and balanced, with fine tannins, wonderful purity, and a great finish. Based on 100% Merlot that's being raised in 30% new French oak with the balance in amphora, due to tiny yields this vintage, the grapes that would normally go into the Delfi cuvée have been folded into this classic château release. This smoking good Fronsac will shine right out of the gate yet should have 20 years or more of prime drinking.
Medium- to full-bodied with silky, delicate dark fruit and chalky tannins. Plush and reserved. Extremely well crafted.
The 2025 Fontenil is complex and dynamic in the glass. Brisk acids cut through a core of dark red/black fruit, espresso, gravel, dried herbs and lavender. Floral top notes lift the long, layered finish. This is superb. I especially admire the energy here.