Château Grand Corbin Grand Cru Classé 1979

Lot presentation

Château Grand Corbin Grand Cru Classé 1979

The wine

Merlot, the main grape, brings roundness and balance, while a high proportion of Cabernet Franc in the blend results in a rich, concentrated wines, in the same style as those produced by its neighbour, Château Figeac. Château Grand Corbin's wines offer tremendous finesse and should be enjoyed in the ten years following the vintage.

Acquired in 1960 by Alain Giraud, Château Grand Corbin was continued by his son, Philippe, until the property was bought by the MBTP Group (Mutuelle du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics - a French insurance company) in 2011. In the new 2012 Saint Emilion classification, its neighbour, Château Haut-Corbin, obtained the same rank as Grand Corbin. As a result the two properties, which are very close to the border with the Pomerol appellation, decided to join forces. Since the 2012 harvest, Châteaux Haut-Corbin and Grand Corbin have both been produced under the Château Grand-Corbin label. Philippe Dambrine is currently managing the property.

The vines are tended with meticulous care, with green harvests during the summer. Manual harvests are followed by rigorous sorting before vinification, which takes place in a high-tech vat room built in 2002 on a gravity-operated basis. The press wine and free-run wines are aged separately for 13 to 18 months in barrels that are one third renewed each year. The wines are bottled after traditional fining, without filtration.