Château Couhins 2012

Tasting notes and serving suggestions for Château Couhins 2012

Tasting

Color

The color displays a vibrant raspberry-red hue, enhanced by ruby highlights. Deep and bright, it reveals elegant legs that attest to the wine’s structure.

Nose

The bouquet stands out for its intensity and clarity. It reveals generous aromas of red fruits, accompanied by subtle hints of musk and spices. Empyreumatic notes express themselves with elegance through smoky, toasty and roasted nuances, enriched by fragrances of coffee and cedar. With aeration, the nose gains in complexity with the emergence of peppery notes, leather and moss, while raspberry and mocha add an indulgent dimension.

Palate

The attack is supple and rich, carried by an alluring freshness. The palate unfolds with lovely roundness and silky, elegant tannins that give the wine a refined texture. The aromas perceived on the nose extend harmoniously on the palate, where notes of leather and moss linger. The empyreumatic finish stretches out with distinction, revealing spicy touches of green pepper and licorice. Overall, it shows a remarkable balance between power and finesse.

Food and wine pairings

Château Couhins 2012 pairs beautifully with refined gastronomic dishes. It is an ideal match for caramelized veal shank, Bordeaux-style lamprey, or Tournedos Rossini. This wine also pairs superbly with red meats baked in a crust, duck breast with porcini mushrooms, roasted leg of lamb with Herbes de Provence, or duck confit served with Sarladaise potatoes.

Serving and cellaring

To fully reveal its qualities, Château Couhins 2012 benefits from being decanted one to two hours before serving. The ideal tasting temperature is between 16 and 18°C. This wine can be enjoyed through around 2027.

An elegant Pessac-Léognan with silky tannins

The estate

Born in the 18th century from the merging of the La Gravette and Pont de Langon estates, Château Couhins is located in Villenave d'Ornon, at the gates of Bordeaux, in AOC Pessac-Léognan. Classified as a grand cru classé de Graves in 1959, it has been owned by INRAE since 1968, which has made it an experimental estate combining production and viticultural research. Its identity rests on elevated gravel mounds, with pebbles over a clay subsoil, promoting drainage and deep rooting.

The vineyard

The red-wine vineyard of Château Couhins covers 16 hectares in the Pessac-Léognan appellation. The vines are planted on a stony ridge composed of gravel, sand and clay, rising to around 50 meters above sea level. This privileged setting ensures optimal drainage and encourages deep rooting of the vines.

The vintage

The 2012 vintage in Bordeaux stood out for its finesse and balance. Weather conditions proved particularly favorable for Merlot, enabling the production of wines with ripe red-fruit aromas, subtle oak notes and well-structured tannins.

Winemaking and aging

The Château Couhins 2012 harvest was carried out by hand according to the principles of sustainable viticulture. Vinification took place in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats equipped with a patented system for breaking up the cap. Fermentations were conducted between 28 and 30°C, followed by malolactic fermentation. Aging continued for 12 months in French oak barrels, including 40% new barrels and 60% once-filled barrels. The wine underwent regular rackings and egg white fining before bottling. Since this vintage, the estate has worked with consultant Michel Rolland.

Grape varieties

Merlot (77%)
Cabernet sauvignon (23%)