Anson: Château Fleur Cardinale wines from 2009 to 2016

The 23.5ha Château Fleur Cardinale was promoted to Grand Cru Classé in 2006 and is located in the eastern side of St-Emilion, next-door to Château Valandraud, a Premier Grand Cru Classé B estate.

This is a corner of the appellation, in a commune called St-Etienne-de-Lisse, where the soils are cooler limestones and red clays.

They giving later-ripening fruit and the area has benefited from more suitable viticultural techniques in recent years, along with more consistently warm years.

Scroll down for Jane Anson’s Fleur Cardinale tasting notes and scores

This led to a rash of newly classified neighbours in the 2012 St-Emilion Classification. Château de Pressac is also here, as is Faugères and Peby-Faugères, and it’s become an extremely dynamic corner of the St-Emilion appellation.

Five questions with marketing director Caroline Decoster

JA: What does Fleur Cardinale mean to you?

CD: It’s a family adventure that began in 2001 when my parents-in-law, Florence and Dominique Decoster, bought this château after selling their porcelain business in Limoges, and it continues every day.

It also means working with my in-laws and my husband, and being part of a family business is very special. This is one of the very few classified properties in Bordeaux where the family not only lives on the estate but also makes the wine. We each have our roles but all work together with the same goal.

JA: Where would you recommend to visitors to St-Emilion?

CD: My favourite place for walking in to St-Emilion is through Porte Brunet, behind Ch. Villemaurine on the eastern side, which is part of the ancient walls and six original gates that date back to the 12th century. It’s the quietest way in, almost always deserted, and you can imagine how the city felt in the Middle Ages.

JA: What is your favourite food?

CD: I love food that takes a long time to cook, that you need to think about; buy the ingredients in advance and invite a group round to share it with. It’s usually a family recipe, with lots of vegetables – which means plenty of chopping – and slow cooked so the aromas fill the whole house, cocooning you and building up your appetite.

It’s part of a great French tradition that I love – something like pot au feu (beef stew) or seven-hour lamb. It’s almost certainly not Instragrammable, and probably doesn’t look beautiful at all, but you have to share it, and serve it out of a large bowl that you pass around, handing it on to the person next to you.

JA: What do you do in your free time?

CD: I am pretty much obsessed with music. Living in the moment is one of the hardest things to do, and I love that music is one of the few things that really helps you do that. I have played bass guitar since 2007 – it appeals to me that bass is in the background, but it’s an essential part of the group, the rhythm that everybody else plays from.

I taught myself after my boxing coach lent me his guitar. I remember the first songs I learnt were Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” and Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution”.

In another life, I would have loved to be in a rock band. I read lots of biographies of musicians, trying to understand where they get their songs and rhythm from. I also travel a lot for my job, and love that music is universal.

JA: You are in the middle of new building works at the estate. What are the plans?

CD: I do a lot of social media and so get to speak directly with many people who drink our wine, but right now we don’t have the space to welcome people, so this new building work is intended to make that possible.

We want to be able to democratise the Grand Cru Classé wines of St-Emilion; to give a more personal, less intimidating feel to classified wine. It won’t be finished before 2021 but there should be lots of surprises to discover.

See Jane Anson’s Fleur Cardinale tasting notes and scores

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