Chateau de Pitray Cabernet Franc Cotes De Castillon – 2019

This 100% Cabernet Franc-based Bordeaux has lovely spice, raspberry and blackberry fruit and violet flavours. It is medium to full bodied with smooth tannins and impressive fruit weight and concentration, but never loses its freshness and vitality. A really fine and great value example which shows the huge potential of this grape when grown on cool, high quality terroirs in today’s increasingly warm vintages. Perfect with a duck breast or fantastic with chocolate mousse! 1250 cases were produced.

The beautiful Chateau Pitray is the oldest family-owned wine property in Bordeaux, owned by the De Boigne family since 1453!  It is situated 9kms east of the town of St.Emilion on the same limestone and clay plateau, which is perfect for growing Cabernet Franc grapes as it gives the wines freshness, elegance and fruitiness. Although many well known wines from St.Emilion and Pomerol contain small proportions of Cabernet Franc, it is still quite unusual to find Bordeaux reds made entirely from this grape. But so impressed was owner Jean De Boigne back in 2011 when he tasted a tank of 100% Cabernet Franc wine from a single plot of his 50 year old vines that he has vinified and bottled this wine separately ever since.

No herbicides or artificial products are used in the vineyard and the grapes are picked and carefully selected by hand.  This wine sees no oak ageing as the aim is to produce the purest possible expression of the Cabernet Franc grape and its terroir.

As a footnote, from the 2020 vintage onwards, the wines of Chateau Pitray will be made by Nina Mitjavile, daughter of Francois Mitjavile, who makes one of the finest red wines on Bordeaux’s Right Bank at Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf. The future for this chateau looks bright indeed!