Fronsac and its enclave of Canon-Fronsac lie directly to the northwest of Libourne in a triangle between the Dordogne and the Isle river coming from the north. The area already had an excellent reputation as a wine region in the 17th and 18th centuries, after Cardinal Richelieu introduced wine to the royal court. But the fame faded. It was not until the 1980s that extensive investment began, bringing Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac back to the attention of the large community of Bordeaux lovers.
©The vineyards of the region, which until 1976 was still called Côtes de Fronsac, extend over seven communes, of which only St.Michael-de-Fronsac and a small piece of Fronsac have a claim to the Canon-Fronsac appellation. The sub-region has the reputation of having the better terroir and theoretically produces the finer wines, but in practice the wine quality here depends much more on the producer than on the origin.
Stylistically, there is no discernible difference between the two appellations anyway. The wines, which grow here predominantly on limestone and lime-rich clay soils, are predominantly powerful and robust. They have always been endowed with much more prominent tannin than those from St.-Emilion or Pomerol, which today is only underpinned with considerably more fruit than in the days before the quality renaissance, when the wines here often turned out quite edgy and brittle. Nevertheless, their tannic power remains a distinguishing feature of many wines from Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac today.
Added to this is climate change, which is also clearly noticeable here. Alcohol contents of 15% and more are not uncommon and underline the impression of power of many wines. However, the best Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac manage to curb this power and counter it with depth, freshness and complexity. Some producers succeed in producing wines of astonishing elegance and finesse, sometimes even with significantly lower alcohol. Although these examples are usually accessible earlier than the more powerful variants, their capacity for development is hardly less. The wines of the region are said to have great ageing potential precisely because of their robustness, but we would be cautious about that. Most of the time, the finer versions develop better in the end than the particularly powerful ones. We can probably say that the majority of Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac wines have their best time between about the 8th and 15th year of life. For the top wines, however, 20 years and more are no hurdle.
We have tasted a good 60 Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac of the 2019 vintage in the past weeks, of which we present the best here. As always, links to all the wines, the tasting notes and the producers can be found at the end of the lists.
Château de Carles
— Bordeaux
2020 Fronsac AOC "Haut-Carles"
Château de Carles
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Haut-Carles"
33.50 €
Château Dalem
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
29.50 €
Château de La Dauphine
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
25.00 €
Château La Rousselle
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
22.00 €
Château de Carles
— Bordeaux
2020 Fronsac AOC
Château Villars
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
19.00 €
Château Tour du Moulin
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
19.00 €
Château George 7
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
24.00 €
Château Beausejour
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Cuvée Prestige"
14.00 €
Château La Brande
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
13.00 €
Château l’Escarderie
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Amphora"
18.00 €
Château Saint-Vincent
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
9.50 €
Château la Valade
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "L'intime
24.00 €
Château Richelieu
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
40.00 €
Château de La Rivière
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
22.00 €
Château Dalem
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Château de la Huste"
16.50 €
Chassagnoux Père & Fille - Château Renard
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Mondésir"
17.00 €
Château Puy Guilhem
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
12.90 €
Château l’Escarderie
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Passion"
12.00 €
Château de Carles
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC
17.50 €
Château Magondeau
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Cuvée Passion"
24.00 €
Château Magondeau
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Beau Site"
15.60 €
Château Labory
— Bordeaux
2019 Fronsac AOC "Château Barbey - Nec Pluribus Impar"
13.50 €
Château Moulin Pey-Labrie
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC
28.00 €
Château Lariveau
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC Cabernet Franc "Le Bouquet de Lariveau"
17.00 €
Château Barrabaque
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "Divin"
26.00 €
Château Mazeris Bellevue
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC
25.00 €
Château Barrabaque
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "Prestige"
19.00 €
Château Barrabaque
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "Hugo"
10.00 €
Domaine Jean-Yves Millaire
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "Château Lamarche Canon"
17.90 €
Château Gaby
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC
30.00 €
Chateau Mazeris
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC
15.00 €
Château Cassagne Haut-Canon
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "La Truffière"
26.00 €
Vignobles Ponty
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC "Château Grand Renouil"
23.30 €
S.C.E.V Château Toumalin
— Bordeaux
2019 Canon-Fronsac AOC
12.00 €
