Chateau Rocheyron La Fleur De Rocheyron 2014 0,75 2014

La Fleur Rocheyron is the 2nd wine of Château Rocheyron.

When Peter Sissick took over Château Rocheyron from Stephen and Denise Adams, it was in a sad condition, and the equipment in the cellar was far from up to date as the wine had been produced on Château Fonplegade for a number of years. The first vintage of Château Rocheyron is thus vinified and matured in a corner of the cellar of Château Faugeres.

Peter Sissick thus stood with unknown grape material in a foreign cellar in a district whose vibes he had not yet gotten up under the skin. The result was a very potent wine that ended up containing an impressive 14.5% alcohol in an expression that in many ways differed from what is commonly expected from a Saint Emilion. The wine is created on pure Merlot harvested from 15-30 year old vines. It is fermented in stainless steel and subsequently matured for 14 months on once used barrels from Château Faugeres.

La Fleur de Rocheyron has now shed some of its primary puppy fat and seems a little more subdued than in the early years, but it is still a full-bodied and rich wine that misses the quivering fresh fruit that Peter Sissick has since aspired to. Or to put it another way: it is not a wine for those who seek finesse, but rather a wine that will excite those looking for Bordeaux wines with densely saturating almost Californian fullness. And there are - we should say and say - quite a few of them.

With a world success from Ribero del Duero in the luggage, when you return "home" to the district where you were formed as a wine person in your time - that is not the worst starting point.

Château Rocheyron is a joint venture between Peter Sisseck and the Spanish Silvio Denz who talked for a long time about the possibility of a joint project. The opportunity came in 2009 when 7 ha. adjacent to the Château Laroque came up for sale, and thereafter the Château Rocheyron became a reality. It is a piece of land on which grapes have been grown "always" with everything it included in the second half of the 20th century. Now Peter Sissick is embarking on the difficult conversion to organic farming and he expects it will take up to 10 before the grapes will be able to express the full potential that the exposure and soil contain.

Maximum investment has been made in everything needed to process the first-class grapes and turn them into awe-inspiring wines. But the goal is not to create dark and intense wines with high alcohol. On the contrary: the goal is to fine-tune the special finesse and delicate freshness, which according to Peter Sissick is Bordeaux's special gift to the world of wine.