2022

Château
Quintus

Château Quintus is the 5th child within the Domaine Clarence Dillon family of wines. Its name is a tribute to the Gallo-Romans, creators of Saint-Emilion’s vineyards, who had the custom of naming their fifth child Quintus.

Tasting notes

The colour of this Quintus is a deep purple. The nose is powerful, revealing ripeness, but not excessively so, with scents of red and black fruits, giving freshness: it is complex, therefore delicate. The first taste is wide, majes tic, gentle and structured. The wine then progresses, smooth, devoid of heaviness, but powerful, covering the palate in the three dimensions: width, depth and length. The Cabernet Francs (more than 40%) bring freshness, as well as structure and combine with the generous, fleshy Merlots, to give a result perhaps never before attained at Quintus. Superb.

The weather

Winter is quite dry and within seasonal averages. The lack of rainfall continues at the beginning of spring and budburst comes about at the end of March, in the more precocious plots. A spell of frost lasting several days takes hold immedia tely afterwards and leads to a pause in budburst, as well as a halt to the vine’s growth, but ultimately it causes very little lasting damage. The warm weather arrives as ear ly as April and continues into May, with an early flowe ring. During the heat wave that comes in mid-June, the teams reduce their green work considerably to protect the grapes. This strategy is beneficial, because the grapes continue to ripen without the slightest sign of sun scald. Summer is sun-drenched and light rain showers during the week of August 10th cool down the soils and make ripening consistent. The harvest at Château Quintus started on September 7th, with the grapes in excellent health. This makes it the earliest harvest since the establishment of the property in 2011. Firstly the young vines are harvested and then plots at the top of the slope, facing south. Considerable intra-plot selection is done in the vineyard to bring out the very best from each plot. Smaller in size this year, the grapes are of extraordinary quality; they are concentrated and present a superb range of aromas and flavours. The harvests are gathered serenely up until September 28th, in perfect weather conditions. As soon as the harvest is gathered, it is evident that the 2022 vintage follows irrefutably in the footsteps of very promising vintages such as 2019 and 2020.The clay-limestone soils of Saint-Emilion, particularly those of Quintus, are thriving this year thanks to their ability to retain coolness, allowing the grapes to adapt to early periods of heat and drought.

A few figures

  • Harvest dates

    from September 7th to 28th

  • Blend

    58.5% Merlot

    41.5% Cabernet Franc

  • Alcohol content

    15.5° (provisional)

  • New barrels

    38.9%

Château Quintus