Château le Puy Bordeaux Côte des Francs 'Barthélémy' 2016

World Wine – “Barthelemy” is Le Puy’s crowning achievement—the fruit is from their greatest, highest-altitude, poorest-topsoil site, which is treated even more minimally in the cellar than the “Emilien” above, and released several years after bottling. Like the Emilien, the Barthelemy is fermented in huge cement vats without human involvement. But, whereas the Emilien spends its first year in large foudres and its second in barriques, the Barthelemy is moved directly into barriques—gross lees and all—for its two-year elevage. During that time, it is “dynamized”—stirred gently in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise strokes—at each full moon, and the lees are subsequently subsumed over time. This ultra-labor-intensive method nourishes the wine and protects it against oxidation, and no sulfur is applied at any point in the process, from harvest to bottling. Even so, the Barthelemy is perfectly stable and can age for many decades, as proven stunningly in a one-hundred-year vertical tasting the Amoreaus hosted in New York last year. 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon..