{"title":"Chateau La Vieille Cure","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the 1950s, there was an obscure AOC on the Right Bank of Bordeaux, right beside famous St.-Émilion. The wines were very cheap, and few were exported to the USA. The AOC was called Pomerol.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePomerol, of course, was then \"discovered,\" and the rest is history. Meanwhile, neighboring Fronsac (and Canon-Fronsac) have continued to toil in obscurity. When we taste the incredible quality of a wine like Vieille Cure, we have trouble figuring out why.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFronsac, of course, lacked the force of the Moueix family, who turned Pétrus and its sister properties into some of the great wine estates of the world. This took lots of patient hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut perhaps Fronsac has its own force. The force we're thinking of is a group of enterprising Americans who purchased Vieille Cure back in 1986. Ever since, they have been applying their own patient, hard work, converting the vines to organics, professionalizing the wine-making, and generally upgrading the winery to a level of sophistication that was basically unknown in Fronsac before. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, hard work alone is never enough. You need good raw materials. Vieille Cure benefits from old vines—some go back 100 years!—planted in exceptionally interesting terroir. While Pomerol is known for its iron-rich soils, and St.-Émilion is a patchwork of different terroirs, Fronsac is known for having the highest concentration of limestone in the region, with soils that are littered with ancient fossilized starfish. VC's own vines are high up on the southeast-facing plateau that occupies the village of Saillans, considered the sweetest spot in the AOC.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe have been following the wines of Vieille Cure for many, many years now, and we firmly believe that this combination of hard work and great raw materials is really paying off, to the point that their wines—which have never really gone up in price—have become some of the most undervalued in all of Bordeaux, and probably even beyond. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eVieille Cure today makes rich and pure examples of Right Bank Bordeaux, with a traditional blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The chalkiness of the wines is striking, as is the plummy fruit that turns gently towards figs and leather with bottle age.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/sf.flatiron-wines.com\/collections\/chateau-la-vieille-cure.oembed","provider":"Flatiron SF","version":"1.0","type":"link"}