1964 | Château La Gaffelière | Saint-Emilion

Detailed Description

Strong ruby ​​garnet, good color core, broader edge brightening, vital color, delicately smoky on the nose, fine sweetness, full-bodied, delicately vegetal, sweet core, blackberries, firm tannins in the finish, nutty in the aftertaste.

Producer Information

Château La Gaffelière is a Bordeaux wine estate in the appellation of Saint-Émilion, and one of the oldest family-owned vineyards in the region. As with many of its neighbors, Château La Gaffelière’s wine is Merlot-dominant, with a small proportion of Cabernet Franc. The estate was ranked as a Premier Grand Cru Classé in the original 1955 Saint-Émilion classification, and as of the 2021 vintage was classified as Premier Grand Cru Classé “B”. However, effective with the 2022 vintage the property was withdrawn from the dispute-ridden classification structure (like Cheval Blanc, Ausone and others) and is now a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru. In all, the property boasts 22 hectares (54 acres) of vineyard. Of this roughly 70 percent is planted to Merlot and 30 percent to Cabernet Franc. La Gaffelière’s lies on the lower slope, facing broadly southeast. Plots are situated on all threee of the major Saint-Émilion terroirs; the limestone plateau, the clay-limestone slope and the foot of the slope with a high silica content. In the winery, the grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats, with malolactic fermentation taking place in barrel. The wine is aged in French oak barrels (of which, on average, about half are new oak) for around 12 to 15 months. The estate also makes a second, Merlot-dominant wine from the lower, more clay-based slopes on the property. Called Clos Gaffelière (or Dame Gaffelière, depending on the market it is sold in), the wine was launched in the mid-1980s and is produced in its own cellar in the winery. In all, Château La Gaffelière produces approximately 80,000 bottles of wine annually. Château La Gaffelière should not be confused with the adjacent but separately-owned Château Canon La Gaffelière, though both were once part of a larger estate owned by the Comte de Malet-Roquefort, whose descendants still own La Gaffeliére. The larger estate was founded on the site of a 17th-Century leper colony – gaffet translates to ‘leper’. Until 1961, the estate was known as La Gaffelière-Naudes.