Les Légendes Pauillac

Les Légendes

APPELLATION

Pauillac

GRAPE VARIETIES

60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot

WINEMAKERS

Diane Flamand

TECHNICAL DATA

Acidity
3.66
Alcohol
12.5%

2020

90POINTS

Wine & Spirits
MARCH 2024
2021

91POINTS

Wine Enthusiast
DECEMBER 2023
Where To Buy VIEW BRAND PORTFOLIO
BACKGROUND

The Rothschild family has been producing wine in Bordeaux since 1868. For six generations, they got to know this beautiful landscape and understand the unique traits of the vines from each appellation. Three decades ago, the family was inspired to create a new wine series, where each wine would be the epitome of the appellation it came from. Their motivation was simple: to ensure wine lovers everywhere could dive into Bordeaux and taste the originality of each appellation. And so, the Les Légendes range was born.

The production of Les Légendes wines is supervised by our oenologist, Diane Flamand. The new Les Légendes range has greatly benefited from Diane’s ambition to create long term partnerships with vineyard growers around each appellation. Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite has made excellence in wine-making practices the basis of its development. Diane creates wines following the same approach: passion, discipline, humility, excellence and harmony.

For over 150 years, our master winemakers have been crafting the finest Bordeaux wines. Generations of local knowledge have taught our grape growers the secret to creating the most outstanding Pauillac. The wines of Les Légendes Pauillac are partly sourced from our family vineyards, the notorious Chateau Lafite and Chateau Duhart-Milon. The local landscape is almost white in color, due to the light colored pebbles that cover the gravelly soil. It’s these different layers of soil that contribute to the complexity of the wine, giving Pauillac its signature, elegant characteristics.

TERROIR & VINTAGE NOTES

Pauillac is located 25 miles north of Bordeaux on the left bank of the Gironde estuary and enjoys exceptional climatic and geological conditions to make outstanding wines. Three of the five First Growths of the 1855 classification are from this famous appellation. Sitting on a beautiful gravelly hilltop, it provides the perfect ripening conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon, resulting in voluptuous, well-structured wines.
2021 will remain in the memory of winegrowers as one of the most difficult to master in the last thirty years: Patience and investment were necessary until the late harvest. The historic spring frost, which hit the whole of the French vineyard, led to a historically low harvest in Bordeaux (-25% on average). The cool, wet summer favored the development of diseases, especially mildew, whose pressure was unprecedented. The Cabernet Sauvignon variety benefited greatly from the good weather from mid-September trhough early October, favoring its maturity. 2021 marks the return of an “old-fashioned” vintage: moderate alcohol levels and very different alcohol/acidity balances from the last solar vintages (2018, 2020).

WINEMAKING & AGEING

This wine is made using traditional Bordeaux methods, the grapes are destemmed and crushed before being placed in thermoregulated stainless steel vats for fermentation. Fermentation is conducted at 86°F and is followed by four weeks of maceration with regular pumping-over to ensure a gentle extraction of the tannins and color.
After malolactic fermentation, 60% of the wine is aged in French oak barrels, made by the nearby Lafite cooperage, for a period of 12 months.

TASTING NOTES

Beautiful purple colour with good intensity The nose is elegant, intense and aromatic, combining black cherry and blackcurrant aromas with discreet woody notes. Ample and fleshy on the attack, with a robust tannic structure and a long fresh and aromatic finish (red fruits). Best drunk within 3 to 5 years.

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