What's Pressoir drinking - Château la Gaffeliere 1983

Edouard Bourgeois
January 5, 2024

I always like to revisit the great classic region of Bordeaux with older wines like this 1983 Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé of Château La Gaffeliere. I was lucky to snap 24 bottles at auction for a very good price and just on time to celebrate my 40th birthday just a week ago!

These mature Bordeaux from lesser-known chateaux perfectly illustrate why Bordeaux has had such a global reputation for so long. The high proportion of Merlot (around 75%, the rest being Cabernet Franc) offers this caressing structure of refined tannins, especially after forty years. This aging ability is in fact a signature of La Gaffeliere.

Nested between the hills of Pavie and Ausone, Château La Gaffelière sits in a premium spot and the family de Malet Roquefort, who has run the estate with passion for more than 3 centuries, doesn’t fail to embrace it.

According to Bordeaux standards, the total estate is relatively small with about 22 hectares of vines reserved for the Grand Vin produced at la Gaffelière.

This is also a wine that carries a particularly high sentimental value for me since I shared a bottle of that same vintage with two of my friends with the same birth year as mine. This was a very long time ago when we were teenagers. The wine has aged gracefully. Hopefully I have too