A world almost entirely closed to travel, a cancelled Bordeaux En Primeur Campaign and persnickety, new DHL compliance requirements in the US are nothing compared to the tenacity of Martin Krajewski, owner of Château Séraphine and Clos Cantenac. And so it was that I held a mini En Primeur chez moi.

These three wines are meticulous. This despite the samples having been shipped from Bordeaux to Napa then back to New York. They had been pulled from barrels two weeks before I tasted them. During En Primeur week, the samples are rarely poured if they are even 48-hours old, and they are typically tasted at the château or just a few kilometers away. What would these wines taste like in situ? How could they but taste even better? 

94
Château Séraphine 2019 Pomerol
With "Fatum Nostrum Est", or "Our Destiny", emblazoned on the label, I would have expected a wine this ambitious, even not knowing anything about Martin. (It is his paternal family’s motto that dates back generations.) This is the third - and seemingly charmed - vintage under the Krajewski family stewardship. Martin's daughter, Charlotte, crafts the wines.

Of the three wines, this is the most brooding and compact. Its pristine clean, youthful fruit core reverberates on the palate, eager to unleash its potential. This ample, palate-saturating Pomerol is a gentle giant rather than a beast. Its buoyant acidity is seamlessly encased by a muscular concentration of viscosity, and its finish is strikingly tinged with a sophisticated touch of bitterness. Blueberry preserves, elderberries, cassis, smoked meat and violets languidly slide into the exotic, penetrating finish. 

This is the wine in the trio that I most wish I could have tasted in Bordeaux. Despite its excellent showing, I feel that some precision might have been lost in transport. The burning question is, "How much?" (Again, the wine would only be better!)

Château Séraphine's 2.2 hectares of vineyards are farmed only with horses. While the current wines are 100% Merlot, a small plot of Cabernet Franc was replanted in April 2017, not long after the Krajewskis became proprietors. The 2019 Merlot was harvested on September 23rd, 24th and 26th.

Charlotte's fermentation process is vividly creative. Yes, some of the buzz words you would expect - like cold soak, remontage and délestage - play a part. For this portion of the wine, she conducted a three-week, post-fermentation maceration followed by malolactic fermentation in 300L new oak barrels as well as - for the first time - a 1,000L clay amphora. For the other portion of the wine, Charlotte filled two new, French oak barrels directly from the sorting table and placed them on an OXOline (a system allowing barrels to be rotated individually) in order that the new oak would better integrate into the wine from the very beginning of fermentation. After all of the malolactic fermentations finished, the component wines were transferred from their lees into 40% new and 60% second- and third-use barriques, where the wine is resting until next spring.

95
Clos Cantenac 2019 Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 
This is a head-turning grande dame. The pretty, lifted aromatics boast of pure and tantalizingly ripe fruit: mulberries, sloe and black currant.  The concentration on the palate is bold and direct. The vibrating but harmonious acidity lifts the succulent palate into a lively and lingering finish with nuances of grated dark chocolate and ganache. The sleeky sculpted tannins melt into the palate. This Saint-Émilion Grand Cru feels silky from start to finish and, while almost accessible now, this wine will unfold beautifully for a few decades. The finesse of the new oak use, the integration of the structure and the layers of flavors are compelling from start to truffle-scented finish. This is made exclusively of Merlot.

93
Petit Cantenac 2019 Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
This elegant, supremely balanced wine tastes like perfectly ripe briar fruit is being hand-squeezed directly onto my palate. The fruit purity is sublime, and the fruit character feels vivacious. With some initial aeration, some perky raspberries and pomegranate arils emerge to give a vein of lift. Then, over the course of four hours, the wine began showing darker fruit tones, especially fleshy black plums. For such a young and densely fruited wine, the Petit Cantenac is surprisingly refreshing. The invigorating acidity seems to do more heavy lifting structure-wise than the suede-like tannins. The lingering finish offers a duo of tang and pithiness that delivers a satisfying dryness to sweep up the palate-coating creaminess.   

Despite the "Petit" in its name, this wine is a brilliant Saint-Émilion Grand Cru in its own right. This Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon is already so good that I could almost drink the sample! Still, the best 2019s will likely take their time to unfurl, and this wine has a long life ahead.

89
Clos Cantenac 2019 Bordeaux Rosé Lexuberance
Made from a small parcel of pure Merlot, this is a cheeky rosé. Its coppery, salmon pink color is visually inviting, and its tangelo and nectarine peel flavors ignite the palate. With these flavors and its broad-shouldered palate focused by a laser-like acidity, the effect is almost Negroni-like. It's vigorously refreshing and moreish in one go. Twinges of hay, almond skin and cracked white pepper on the finish give this wine a matter-of-fact vivacity that is very smartly balanced by a solid mid-palate concentration. (Merlot always sits squarely in the mid-palate, even as a rosé.) This is a rosé for food, and with its energizing, pithly tannins, this is one that should evolve attractively in bottle, too. I decanted this for 30 minutes and suggest serving it cellar temperature, not colder. It's a serious rosé.