Château Roc de Cambes, Côtes de Bourg 2020

85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc.

Our annual visit to Tertre Roteboeuf is always one of the most anticipated by the team – lightning speed commentary from François Mitjavile, covering all the crucial elements for his wines, not necessarily related to vineyards or winemaking, along with the Stygian gloom of the cellar combine to give not only an atmospheric tasting but more importantly an insight into a unique style of wine. In the absence of travel, yet again, we have been reduced to gleaning fragments of the story from phone calls and emails, a poor replacement for the normal stream-of-consciousness information but the tasting samples lined up before us, with their unique aromas and flavours, magically transport us straight back to the St Emilion cellar.

François and his winemaking daughter, Nina, like their fruit to be at the peak of ripeness, tipping towards over-ripeness, in order to achieve the full potential of their vines in terms of flavours, tannin and acidity, and this gives their wines a savoury plumpness and structure which sets them apart from their neighbours. In 2020, they began their harvest on 21st September, the earliest François can recall, with perfectly ripe fruit which had been encouraged to finish ripening by September rains. In the Côtes de Bourg, always slower to ripen, harvesting at Domaine and Roc de Cambes began some 10 days later. The wines are, as ever, rich and lush without being over the top, with fine-tuned tannins and a beautiful freshness of fruit, deceptively approachable already yet demanding a few years before reaching their best.

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