The “Golden Triangle” of Pomerol a triangle shaped cluster of vineyards in a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine region in southwestern France. It is located near Bordeaux.
It comprises arguably the best wines in the world… Great Bordeaux!
Pomerol has come a long way in the past fifty years or so, and yet it also remains markedly different from the other famous Bordeaux communes. It has with no classification system yet and is pieced together with small, regularly family-owned vineyards, scattered with farmhouses realistically not châteaux (many liken Pomerol to Burgundy rather than Bordeaux); the right banked Pomerol does not resemble the opulence of the Bordeaux left bank. Curiously, Pomerol has never been written about with the same admiration repeatedly publicized to the châteaux of Pauillac, St Julien, Margaux or St.Emillon; But obviously it should.
The open flat land of Pomerol not really distinct. Yet with endless acres of vines that are emaciated in the winter and fertile in the summer. These plains have narrow roads, ditches and farmhouses which contain hills with plateaus and uplands where the soils were deposited as sediments by water, ice and wind.
Subsequently, formed by erosion; these hills are made up of two thirds sandy and gravely soil and one third clay and gravely soil. It is the only wine producing region in the world with a large degree of blue clay in its soils.
After the famous 1982 vintage, Pomerol has respectfully received a lot more attention. That was the year that prices began to soar for wines like Petrus and Lafleur.
This “Golden Triangle” of Pomerol encompasses the best chateaux, including: Petit village, Le Pin, Vieux Chateau Certan, La Conseillante, l’Evangile, Pétrus, Lafleur, Le Gay, La Croix de Gay , Clos l’Eglise, Chateau Cabanne, Trotanoy and finally the top of Nenin”. These have consistently been producing the best wines in the Pomerol commune. Try one if you can.
The rest of Pomerol is sandy soil like most of Bordeaux, where it is usually more difficult for growers to find a distinctiveness or individuality for their wines.
Understandably, there are numerous outstanding Pomerol wines. Many are terroir driven some are a combination of advanced technology with good marketing creating a winning formula (purely ‘technique’ driven). Really great wine nevertheless.
Some of the ones I enjoy regularly are Chateau de Sales, Chateau Ferrand, Chateau La Pointe and Clos Rene.
Hence, the transformation of the “Golden Triangle” wines come from the dynamics and physical history of the terrain and the clear-cut style of wine making.
Pomerol wines consistently are fleshy with an easy drinking quality and many display this quality when young, there are others which require a huge amount of patience and command respect for their ability to age in bottle, transforming into something other-worldly over many unfathomable decades. Such wines have need of high honor and consideration during this modern age of instant gratification.
Sometimes you find only the most wealthy collectors might afford the price tag of a age worthy ‘Golden Triangle’ Pomerol(due to scarcity and limited production)…
But the allure of an easy drinking, fleshy, young Pomerols… ironically command the attention of not only the wealthy but a whole lot of wine lovers through and through. Certainly, nothing wrong with that!
