2016 Château Trotanoy

There’s decadence and complexity to this young wine, which offers spellbinding dark fruit. But there are also wild mushrooms, sandalwood, blackberries and violets on the nose, not to mention black olives. Full bodied, very deep and layered. Powerful finish. Drink after 2025. (01/2019)

A structured, powerful wine, the 2016 Château Trotanoy checks in as 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc from one of the great sites in Pomerol, a 7-hectare vineyard located on gravelly, black clay soils. This ruby/purple-hued effort gives up a brilliant bouquet of crème de cassis, blackberry and black raspberry fruits intermixed with loads of iron and crushed rock-like minerality, smoke tobacco, and graphite. It's deep, full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, with sensational purity of fruit and balance as well as building tannins and structure. It's built for the long haul and needs a solid 7-8 years of bottle age, but it will keep for 3 decades or more. (02/2019)

The 2016 Trotanoy is deep garnet in color. It needs a lot of swirling and convincing to coax out earthy notions of tar, black truffles, and tilled soil, over a core of stewed black plums and black cherry preserves, plus hints of licorice and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, concentrated and decadent, the palate has a firm, grainy texture and taut, muscular black fruit, finishing very long and earthy. (12/2022)