"A bright, minerally style, with floral and red cherry notes fronting for tobacco, garrigue and grilled thyme notes. The long, supple finish lets the minerality hang on. Really well-knit this vintage. Drink now through 2017. 3,330 cases made." 91 Points - Wine Spectator
"Bright red. Vibrant raspberry and cherry aromas are sharpened by zesty minerality. Fresh, fine-grained and juicy, with vivid strawberry and raspberry flavors, silky tannins and a long, seductive finish. There's something alluringly pinot-like about this." 90 Points - Josh Raynolds - International Wine Cellar
VINIFICATION:
"After a manual harvesting and a compulsory sorting , ( 5% minimum but usually higher ) , the grapes are transported in small crates in order to ensure their arrival at the cellar in the best of conditions.
The harvest is destemmed and more or less crushed depending to the year; due to differences in maturity the grape-varieties are vinified separatly in 150hl concrete tanks equipped with a cooling system."
"Vatting lasts 20 to 25 days depending on the year. The wines are put in 20 to 40hl stock vats to go through a second fermentation (malo-lactic) and then racked. The various grape-varieties are assembled and put in stock vats for aging between 12 to 18 months depending on the year. The wines are then put in meshed metallic tanks where they are fined and filtered before bottling. They are stored for several months before putting them out for sale."
"At Chateauneuf-du-Pape, the yield is limited to 35hl/ha. It is quite often that we go under this requirement, be it for a better harvest or for personnal criteria for quality." -Winemaker
ESTATE:
"The Domain Chateau Fortia , is one of the oldest of Chateauneuf du Pape. History has it that it used to be an outbuilding of the pontifical castle where the cardinals kept their stables.
The domaine took importance when Hercule de Fortia d'Urban took it over.The count of Ripert Monclar wrote in his essay entitled , The Life and Works Of The Marquis Of Fortia of Urban published in 1843 that it was a lovely little hermitage. The lands registry of 1763
offers proof with the mention of a small farm belonging to the marquis of Fortia maintained on a share-cropping system. " -Importer
