Château Laurence 'Petite Laurence' has a fully expressive aroma with mellowed red fruits and soft floral touches intermingled with secondary and tertiary notes from this 2016 vintage.  The wine is soft and smooth and gentle with a savouriness and spicy taste.  There is a food friendly meaty and woody undertone, perfect for a variety of Autumnal/Wintery dishes.

Critic Review

Decanter Magazine: 89Pts (2020 vintage)
Drinking Window: 2022 - 2032

"Nice aromatic intensity on the nose. This has a lovely juicy quality, red and black fruits - blackcurrants and raspberries - are offset by generous acidity and a lovely cushioning of just-chalky tannins. Round and easy to like with lots of freshness and appealing minty edges to the finish."
Georgina Hindle

JancisRobinson.com: 16Pts (2020 vintage)
Drinking Window: 2022 - 2035

"Wonderful blackberry and blackcurrant nose – ripe but not jammy. Juicy dark fruit flecked with masses of graphite minerality, vanilla sweetness, dried-thyme herbs and embedded, gritty tannins tugging into the corners. A mouth-watering, fresh stemminess that reminds me of bare winter hedgerows and wood-burner smoke curling up through cold milky skies. The fruit on this is just lovely, with all the elements pressing a savoury framework around it to create really good balance."
Tamlyn Currin

About the Producer

This 6 hectare estate is part owned by Hubert de Boüard de Laforest of Château Angélus fame and Philippe Nunes, his technical director. They have seen promise here and are making wines that offer brilliant drinking well beyond the price point.  Château Laurence 'Petite Laurence' is made from 100% Merlot grapes and aged for 14 months in tank and barrel before release. Below is a quote lifted from the winemaker's website showing his knowledge and passion for his chosen path.

"Wine is a story of encounters, dreams and passion. I hope to communicate to you through my site a bit of dream, of passion while waiting for the meeting…

My parents taught me the profession of winegrower, with all the love and attention that the winegrower brings to his vineyard. They were married in the church of Montagne Saint-Emilion, I was baptized in Fronsac, and I spent my first 20 years in Margaux. I have always lived among the vineyards, so it was only natural that I chose a job related to wine!!!

After my BTS in viticulture and oenology, I obtained my National Diploma in Oenology at the prestigious University of Bordeaux. 1997 will be my first vintage in Pomerol."

Philippe Nunes

Vineyard and Winery

The merlot grapes are grown on clay-limestone soils on hillsides facing due south, clay-limestone facing west and also on gravelly clay. The planting density of thevines is between 5000 to 6172 vines per hectare. For sustainability and soil health there is inter-row grassing and tillage around the vines. The vineyard is HVE3 certified for sustainable agriculture which is of high environmental value.

Harvesting and sorting of the grapes was done by mechanics rather than by hand which improves the speed from vine to ferment thus retaining good fruit freshness.  The grapes were fermented in thermoregulated stainless steel vats with aging done part in barrel and the same thermoregulated stainless steel vats. Fining was only performed where necessary and fining was done just prior to bottling for release.