2019 Domaine Haut Ventenac L’Authentique Francs Cotes de Bordeaux 750 ml

“Look for the new generation.”

That’s what a seasoned importer told us back in our earliest days in wine, when everything grand and classic was much cheaper than now but still WAY out of our reach.

Any house with a reputation already had a price to match, but if you could find a young, driven winemaker revolutionizing a previously staid estate then you had a recipe for fantastic bottles—priced ahead of the market’s golden claws.

Domaine Haut Ventenac ratifies our old friend's wise words. With prime vineyards in the Francs Côtes de Bordeaux—a region Wine Enthusiast called “a tiny jewel”—young winemakers Rémi Bucherie and Grégoire Clerc have already been tapped for stardom by French publication Terre de Vin. 

This 2019 represents Bucherie and Clerc’s first full vintage in charge, and the results are already remarkable. From their organically farmed grapes they’ve produced a wine with an irresistible freshness for its level of power—a classic Merlot-dominant blend that pulls off the magic trick of the “self-emptying” bottle. Three members of our tasting panel asked for “just one more taste” of this wine—about three times each. 

When Bucherie and Clerc took the reins of the estate in 2019, they immediately converted it to organic farming in order to help deliver the terroir more clearly in the bottle. Along the same lines, the two speak about “infusion” of flavor rather than “extraction,” and they employ gentle fermentations and concrete aging to allow the Authentique to express plenty of succulent fruit flavors from the grapes without harsh tannins or oaky flavors. 

Terre de Vin singled it out as their favorite of the estate’s range, and we think they’re right on.