Château Lamolière 2022, Fronsac, Bordeaux

Château Lamolière is the second wine of Château Les Trois Croix, the Fronsac estate owned by the Léon family on Bordeaux’s Right Bank. Fronsac lies just west of Pomerol and Saint-Émilion, and the estate’s vines are spread across the communes of Fronsac, Saillans and Saint-Aignan, on hillside slopes of clay and limestone. Lamolière is a Merlot-based red with Cabernet in the blend, made in a slightly earlier-drinking style than the grand vin, and the estate is certified HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale) for its environmental practices.

In the glass it is a deep, dark red. The nose is expressive, with ripe dark fruit and lifted floral and mineral notes. The palate shows plenty of fruit, power and density, wrapped in silky, velvety tannins with an almost cashmere-like texture, and finishes long and precise.

Serve at around 16–17°C, ideally decanted for an hour when young. It is excellent with roast lamb, beef fillet, duck, venison, mushroom dishes and mature cheeses. Château Lamolière can be enjoyed now and, with its rich tannic structure, will continue to develop well in bottle for several years.

Château Les Trois Croix is a family estate in Fronsac, on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, whose history goes back to at least 1712, when a stone tower on the property was inscribed with the words ‘Trois Croix’. In 1995 it was bought by Patrick Léon, one of Bordeaux’s most respected winemakers, who was technical director at Château Mouton Rothschild from 1984 to 2003 and helped launch Opus One in California and Almaviva in Chile. His son Bertrand, who worked alongside him for many years, now runs the estate. The vineyards sit on clay and limestone at the highest point of the Fronsac appellation and are planted mainly with Merlot and Cabernet Franc, including a parcel of vines dating back to the 1940s. The barrel cellar was modernised in 2020.