Emilien Magnum

Emilien is the wine the Amoreau family makes from the whole of Le Puy rather than from one corner of it. The estate calls it a reflection of all its plots: mostly Merlot, a little of both Cabernets, and a single percent each of Malbec and Carménère, two varieties the rest of Bordeaux has largely left behind.

The grapes are picked by hand, destemmed and left to ferment in cement vats on their own yeasts. The family calls its method fermentation by infusion: it starts, runs and stops without anyone stepping in. The wine then spends at least two years in foudres and used barrels that are rarely replaced, because the Amoreaus count the taste of oak as a flaw. Nothing is added in the cellar, the wine goes to bottle unfiltered, and the cork is sealed under wax by hand.

The estate's own record of 2018 gives yields of 23.6 hl/ha, 21 days of frost and 797 mm of rain over the year, and calls the result a balanced, warm wine. Its analysis puts the sulphur dioxide in this vintage below the limit of quantification.

Over the years the same wine has travelled under other names, among them Château du Puy, Château le Puy and L'Ô du Puy, and the estate says they all come from the same method and reflect all its plots. The name on the label changes; the plateau does not.