Château Grand Corbin-Despagne 2021

Expressive, clear and pure, with dark and red berries and floral complexity. On the palate, precision, structure and great harmony; top-notch tannins, very compact, with substance, good length. Once again, very successful.

The 2021 Grand Corbin-Despagne opens in the glass with notes of dark berries, cassis and cherries mingled with notions of spices and smoky new oak. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and seamless, it's ample and generous, its sweet core of fruit framed by supple but youthfully structuring tannins.

This shows aromas of walnuts, blackberry fruit, chocolate orange and tea leaves. It’s sleek and creamy with fine, polished tannins, a medium body and excellent length. Coming together nicely. From organically grown grapes. Drink after 2024.

The 2021 Grand Corbin Despagne has an attractive bouquet with blackberry, wild strawberry, cedar and rose petal scents. The palate is medium-bodied and tensile with grainy tannins, a touch of flint and graphite, and some hardness on the finish at the moment.

Fennel, black cherries, espresso and flowers show in the aromatic profile. The palate is medium-bodied, soft, fresh and creamy, leaning toward the bright cherry side of the style range. Drink from 2024–2037.

Dark ruby, narrow purple rim. Ripe plums, fresh cherries, delicate herbal savouriness, orange zest and tobacco nuances. Juicy red-berry fruit, vivid tannins, a touch leafy, lemony-salty finish with redcurrant lingering on the back palate.

Full, fresh, fleshy and intense, Grand Corbin Despagne 2021 also shows very attractive oak. Dark fruit at the core, powerful, with a great nose. On the palate, full and fleshy as well, very clear and straight, with great freshness and fine-grained tannins. A very tightly structured Saint-Émilion with impressive volume and density, and an extract-rich finish.

This is an estate that I have great admiration for, and it is delivering a taut finesse in 2021; although it dips in the mid-palate, you'll find attractive brambled fruit and an earthy, authentically felt expression of the vintage. 10% amphora for aging, 19 hl/ha, organic farming. Thomas Duclos and Stétphane Totoundji are consultants to this estate owned by 7th-generation winemaker Francois Despagne, who is celebrating 210 years in the family with this vintage.

A blend of 72% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2021 Grand Corbin-Despagne is deep garnet-purple in color. Scents of warm blackberries, black cherries, and redcurrants spill from the glass, leading to touches of charcoal and pencil shavings. The medium-bodied palate is satiny and elegantly styled, with a quiet intensity of fragrant fruit and a perfumed finish. Nicely done!

An exhilarating nose of black and blue fruits that takes you for a stroll along a path lined with plum trees under the August sun. Precise, ripe and fresh on the palate, with perfectly judged balance and a lovely length.

Grand Corbin-Despagne is distinguished by the subtlety of its bouquet, which unfolds in stages with precision, offering a convincing symbiosis of oak, fruit and minerality. The density on the palate is a reminder that great wines have been produced in the Corbin area—borne out by the joyful wines from most neighboring estates. A wine that combines character, vigor and sapidity.

Beautiful deep, dark purple-red. Highly aromatic nose with fresh, ripe fruit. Delicate on the attack, aromatic mid-palate, with a silky touch and a body driven by aroma more than substance; the wine stretches out on the finish, rising, pleasant and sapid. This is very good. Blend: 72% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Alcohol: 13.4% – pH: 3.58. Yield: 19 hl/ha. Estate in biodynamic conversion.

A gorgeous nose full of milk chocolate, black cherries, fragrant raspberries, tapenade and cinnamon. Supple and nicely weighted on the palate, tannins are chewy and grippy in the best way and this has a fun, juicy element that nicely counters the structure. Round and more full than some, this still needs a bit of time to settle, but there's lots of life in this with ripe fruit, mouthwatering acidity and lovely salty, minerality on the finish. A lovely wine with plenty of savoury elements on show still in the flint, wet stone, liquorice, toast, tobacco and cocoa powder. Shows great promise.