Château Teyssier Les Astéries, Saint-Émilion
Grand Cru Saint-Émilion from a 1.1 hectare Merlot (80%) and Cabernet Franc (20%) panaché block (vines planted together) from the rockstar vigneron Jonathan Maltus. It's said Maltus prefers to take a more Burgundian approach to plot selection, looking for distinct terroir within the estate system. His Grand Crus' from single plots include Vieux Château Mazerat, Le Carré, Le Dômere and, of course, Les Astéries. The latter is named for the hardest form of limestone which characterise the belt of soils that underly Châteaux Belair, Canon, and Clos Fourtet.
“Very focused with the sophistication that could only come from 80-year old vines. Wonderful.”
- Jonathan Maltus
The vines of Les Astéries date back over eighty years and the wine was the first of Maltus' Château Teyssier single vineyard, micro-cuvée wines from the côtes of Saint-Émilion.
St.-Émilion is the star of Bordeaux’s Right Bank, north of the Dordogne River. The rich red wines produced in St.-Émilion, based on Merlot and Cabernet Franc, are less tannic and generally more fruit-driven in flavour than the Cabernet-based wines of Left Bank. Merlot thrives on the plateaus high above the Dordogne, where the soil is filled with sand and clay, a perfect medium for creating opulent, fruit-forward wines. With a typically savoury character, St.-Émilion wines are sometimes called the “Burgundies of Bordeaux.” These refined reds, with loads of finesse, are elegant companions to beef, chicken, pork and duck.
The wines of St.-Émilion were not included in the famous 1855 classification of Bordeaux, which ranked wines of the Left Bank. In 1955, St.-Émilion published its own classification, based on soil analysis, wine quality and reputation of the properties. Unlike the 1855 classification, St.-Emilion’s system requires properties to continuously prove themselves. The list is revised regularly, most recently in 2012. There are two tiers within the classification, Premier Grand Cru Classé and Grand Cru Classé. There are currently just 18 Premier Grand Cru properties and 64 Grand Cru Classé properties.
The St.-Émilion appellation is home to hundreds of individual producers, enhancing the variety of wines made there. Many of the properties remain small, family-run enterprises, unlike the large châteaux of the Left Bank. The area is also the base of France’s controversial micro-châteaux or garagiste wine movement; these innovative winemakers operate outside the traditional classification system, making very high quality (and very expensive) highly extracted wines.
