Château Fleur Cardinale - Hard Rock Collector Edition - Magnum 2018
In Saint-Émilion, Château Fleur Cardinale presents with the 2018 vintage a particularly sought-after piece: the very first edition of its Collector series, dedicated to the world of Hard Rock. The estate, owned by the Decoster family since 2001, is located on the heights of Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse, to the east of the appellation, on a group of mainly clay-limestone terroirs. Classified as a Grand Cru Classé of Saint-Émilion since the 2006 vintage, Fleur Cardinale has built an identity blending viticultural precision, fruit maturity, and a strong personality. For this inaugural edition, the château completely reinterpreted its historic emblem by integrating the flamboyant graphic codes of Hard Rock, creating an immediately recognizable design. Each magnum was hand-numbered and presented in an individually screen-printed wooden box, giving this version the dimension of a true collector's item. The extremely limited production of this presentation, which concerns only a small series of magnums, significantly increases its appeal today for collectors of great Bordeaux wines and lovers of atypical editions. Behind this spectacular aesthetic lies exactly the great wine of Château Fleur Cardinale 2018: the rarity is therefore due to the collector's packaging, the 1.5-liter format, and its specific conditioning, not to a different cuvée.
The 2018 vintage is composed of 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Merlot builds a deep and generous body, dominated by ripe black fruits, while the significant proportion of Cabernet Franc brings freshness, floral relief, and tension to the whole. The Cabernet Sauvignon completes the blend with a straighter structure and additional persistence. The grapes are hand-harvested and then subjected to several selection steps before vinification, carried out in temperature-controlled conical stainless steel tanks. The maceration of the 2018 lasts about 28 days, and the aging is done for about thirteen months in new French oak barrels, in an assumed style that accompanies the natural power of the vintage. With an announced degree of around 14.5%, the wine has significant richness but retains enough freshness and structure to support this concentration. The magnum format is an essential element here: it slows the evolution of the wine and further enhances the long-term interest of this collector's edition.
The color is deep, dense, and dark, with garnet reflections still very young. The bouquet unfolds blackberry, black plum, and blueberry, accompanied by violet, licorice, spices, and woody nuances still present in the youth of the wine. With aeration, cocoa, anise, cedar, and a more mineral and earthy dimension gradually appear, giving more depth to the fruity register. The palate has a broad and enveloping body, supported by ripe and velvety tannins that give the 2018 its generous character without sacrificing precision. The Cabernet Franc maintains a particularly interesting freshness at the heart of this richness and stretches the finish on black fruits, spices, and licorice. A few additional years in the cellar will allow the wood to blend further and the wine to develop notes of tobacco, truffle, and undergrowth. Beyond its gustatory qualities, this 2018 Hard Rock Magnum occupies a unique place in the recent history of Fleur Cardinale: the first Collector Edition of the estate, numbered and presented in its specific case, it combines great vintage, large format, and editorial rarity in a bottle designed as much for the cellar as for a collection.
Grape varieties: 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
