Maltus expands into Napa Valley

Jonathan Maltus, the English owner of top estates in Bordeaux and Australia, is adding a Napa Valley property to his stable, decanter.com has learned.

The owner of St-Emilion’s Chateau Teyssier, the man behind celebrated ‘garage’ wines Le Dôme, La Forge and Le Carré, and the owner of the Colonial Wine Company in Barossa , announced that he would be releasing a Napa wine made from selected vines in one of Napa’s best estates. The estate in question will not be revealed until the end of the month.

The grapes will be bought at first, selected from custom crushes, supplemented by lease agreements, but he is looking to buy vines in the longer term and a winery will be constructed after the first two years.

Maltus said that the wine would be called Clos III.

‘This is some of the best quality AVA land in Napa,’ Maltus told decanter.com. ‘We like to use wood vats so we will follow the same techniques we use in Barossa and ship barrels in from Cognac.’

Maltus has also expanded in Bordeaux where he has bought four hectares of vines from Vieux Chateau Mazerat. The land, situated next to Chateau Angelus, is the remainder of the same vineyard, purchased 12 years ago, that provide Cabernet Franc vines for Le Dôme.

A building that comes with the land will be turned into a winery, but there are no decisions as yet as to whether to bottle as a single vineyard wine or to use the grapes in Maltus’ existing wines.

Angelus proprietor Hubert de Bouard is also renting a small parcel of Mazerat vines.

‘It is the only unclassified cru in this sector just to the west of St-Emilion and doubtless if the wine comes to be put in casks it could easily achieve classification,’ said Bordeaux expert David Peppercorn in his book Bordeaux.

Written by Jane Anson in Bordeaux