Ch. Jean Faure
Grand Cru
Saint-Emilion
2010

The producer

Jean Faure’s modern history started in 2004 when Olivier Decelle (also the owner of leading Maury estate ‘Mas Amiel’ and other Bordeaux estates) acquired the estate. Big investments were made at the time to improve the drainage in the vineyard soils and to convert the vineyards to organic farming.

The 18 hectares of vineyards are located close to Ch La Dominique, near the Pomerol border, and are planted to 50% Cabernet Franc, 45% Merlot and the remainder is Malbec. The wines age in 40% new oak barrels for an average of 18 months and the production is on average just under 5,000 bottles per vintage. Jean Faure is a charming wine, which in most vintages is immediately approachable but will also benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age.

The wine

Grape material for Jean Faure is sourced from on average 50-year-old, fully certified organic vineyards in the northwest of the Saint-Emilion appellation. The blend varies with vintage conditions but is mostly comprised of 50% Cabernet Franc, with 45% Merlot and the remainder Malbec. Whole-bunch fermentation with regular punching-down is followed by ageing in up to 40% new French oak barrels. Jean Faure is a charming wine, which in most vintages is immediately approachable but will also benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age. This is very good Bordeaux at an agreeable price.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.