Chateau Trotte Vieille Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2023

Wow, this is really something. It is full and powerful with truly impressive depth of fruit. Yet, it remains agile and structural, with flexed muscles, balanced by a sense of floating. Well defined and poised. 53% cabernet franc, 44% merlot, and 3% cabernet. Will it be better than 2022?

The 2023 Trotte Vieille has really grown with élevage. Dark fruit, grilled herbs, menthol, licorice and chocolate stain the palate. Time in the glass brings out the wine's textural resonance and explosive energy. The long, sustained finish is a thing of beauty. Trotte Vieille, with its high percentage of Cabernet Franc, is one of the most distinctive wines in Bordeaux.

Coming from a seriously good terroir on the upper plateau of Saint-Emilion, the 2023 Château Trotte Vieille is always a more Cabernet Franc-dominated blend and one that needs air to show at its best. Its deep purple hue is followed by a ripe, powerful nose of crème de cassis and assorted darker, almost blue fruits intermixed with roasted herbs, tobacco, dark chocolate, and a kiss of violets. Concentrated and medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has ripe, sweet, yet building tannins and a great finish. It has enough fruit to offer pleasure today yet is built for the long haul as well. Hide bottles for 4-5 years if possible and enjoy over the following two decades. Drink 2029-2053.

The 2023 Trotte Vieille is deep garnet-purple in color. The first impression is WOW! It prances out of the glass with showy notes of ripe black plums, mulberries, and blackberry pie followed by hints of candied violets, cedar chest, cinnamon stick, and clove oil. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers electric tension, with super-fine satiny-smooth tannins and intense black fruit and baking spice layers, finishing long and fragrant. Along with the 2022, this is the best Trotte Vieille I've tasted. The blend is 53% Cabernet Franc, 44% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon, with an alcohol of 13.5%. “The new vat room was finished in 2021 for Trotte Vieille,” commented owner Frédéric Castéja. “This made a big difference to what we could achieve this year. The aim was to respect the fruit, keep the freshness, and make wines that are not too tannic and aggressive when young. This is the opposite of the wines from the 1990s.”

The 2023 Trotte Vieille, the second wine made in the new vat room, impressed out of barrel. Now in bottle, this has impressive purity on the nose with perfumed blackberry, cassis and violet petal aromas. Very fine delineation and purity, this gains intensity with aeration. The palate is ripe and grippy on the entry, plenty of substance matched by a keen line of acidity. Precise on the finish, this is an excellent Saint-Émilion that fulfills the promise that it showed from barrel.