Anson: What’s new in Bordeaux in 2021?

Twelve months ago, most of us were sure that the Covid-afflicted Bordeaux 2019 en primeur season would be a one-off against the backdrop of the first lockdown.

But here we are again, with case numbers rising across Europe, and once again most of the new vintage tastings will be done via Zoom, while for those who are here or able to get here, curfews mean being back home by 7pm every evening.

As so few people have visited over the past 12 months, it seems even more useful to round up recent changes as things stand in Bordeaux in 2021; and a few things to look out for in the young 2020-vintage wines.

New Owners

Châteaux Le Prieuré, Vray Croix de Gay and Siaurac are now under the ownership of Suravenir Assurances, the owner of Calon Ségur over in St-Estèphe.

Announced in October 2020, Suravenir said Calon Ségur’s director, Vincent Millet, will be heading up the direction of all the estates, with Penelope Godefroy remaining as technical director of the Right Bank properties.

Suravenir has since bought an extra four hectares (ha) of vines for Grand Cru Classé estate Le Prieuré. This will be submitted for inclusion in the new St-Emilion classification, due in 2022.

Just announced: Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse

Château Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, the St-Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classé B estate, has also changed owners.

The process involved a down-to-the-wire fight for the estate between Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal (under her name, not that of Château Angélus), Mathieu Cuvelier of Clos Fourtet, and Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse with the backing of the Courtin family (of skincare brand Clarins).

In the end, in a decision announced yesterday (7 April), it was ‘young winemaker’ Duffau-Lagarrosse who won the day, with the backing of the Courtin family.

Her family has owned the property since 1847 but the numerous shareholders wanted to sell up, and it looked extremely likely to go to one of the other St-Emilion hopefuls.

Following an appeal, French agricultural land agency SAFER decided to award the sale to the Courtin family and Duffau-Lagarrosse. It said the sale value was €75m.

This is on the basis that the property would be kept intact, and that the historic link with the family would be maintained. Young winemakers have a special statute within SAFER rules that gives them priority access to viticultural land.

Newly sold: Château Villemaurine

Château Villemaurine has also been sold, with the annoucement coming this week.

It has been bought by the Lefévère family, owner of Château Sansonnet, also in St-Emilion but on more clay-rich soils than the limestone-dominant Villemaurine.

Marie Lefévère will take over as director of Villemaurine.

More recent sales: From Margaux to Pomerol

Château du Tertre announced new owners as of January 2021, with the Helfrich family of Grands Chais de France taking over from previous owners Albada Jelgersma family on a leasing and management basis.

An unnamed institutional investor is behind the purchase, with Jean-Marc Dulong taking over as director. The Albada-Jelgersma family will keep ownership of neighbouring Margaux estate Château Giscours.

Over in Pomerol, Château Mazeyres moved out of company ownership under SOGECAP insurance back into private hands with the Guillard family – also owners of Château Fonroque in St-Emilion. Alain Moueix will continue as director.

In Lalande-de-Pomerol, British wine merchant Romik Arconian has bought the 21-hectare Château Canon-Chaigneau from former owner Louis Marin – although the Marin family will retain a small holding.

In Blaye, another British wine merchant has been expanding his vineyard holdings. Andrew Eakin, of Bottle Apostle in London, is already owner of Château Puynard in Blaye, and has recently bought neighbouring property Château Magdeleine-Bouhou.

He is also planning to open a distillery in the next six months.

Bordeaux vineyard changes

Château Lafite Rothschild is beginning a large scale biodiversity programme that will see 3ha of the First Growth’s Pauillac vines pulled up over the next five to 10 years for the planting of hedgerows and trees.

With the price of vines in Pauillac averaging €2m per hectare, and no doubt considerably more at Lafite itself, that is a serious commitment.

Château Cantenac Brown has increased in size to just under 60ha with the purchase of 9.5ha of vines from Chateaux Charmant and la Galiane in July 2020 (the vines, not the stocks, brands or the châteaux buildings).

The new plots will be included as of the Bordeaux 2020 vintage. Cantenac Brown, a Margaux third growth, was bought by Tristan le Lous in 2019.

‘Green’ Bordeaux

The march towards a greener Bordeaux continues. The Côtes de Bourg appellation body has said that all winemakers must have an environmental certification if using the appellation name on the label as of 2025.

This will be Haute Valeur Environmentale – or HVE – as a minimum, but many individual winemakers are going much further.

Both Francs and Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux are now more than 50% certified organic or in conversion, while that figure in Blaye is 34%.

All AOCs in France will have to follow HVE as a minimum by 1 January 2030, according to rules laid out by France’s national appellation body, INAO.

Over at Château Montrose, a ‘first of its kind’ climate and vineyard study is being undertaken with climate research scientist Benjamin Bois and geologist Pierre Becheler.

Sixty temperature and humidity sensors have been set up across the vineyard with the aim of adapting vineyard management to the changing climate.

Over in St-Emilion, Couvent des Jacobins has been certified organic as of the 2020 vintage. Château la Fleur Cardinale has begun its organic conversion this year, as have all the Pascal Chatonnet estates in Lalande-de-Pomerol and St-Emilion.

Wine changes

As of last vintage, Lalande-Borie in St-Julien has become Le Petit Ducru. It’s owned by Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, which has also recently introduced a new AOC Haut-Médoc wine named Madame de Beaucaillou.

Cécile Dupuis arrived as the new winemaker at Ducru-Beaucaillou in November 2019, making 2020 her first full vintage overseen from beginning to end. She was previously at Clos du Clocher in Pomerol.

Château d’Issan, the Margaux third growth, is using five grape varieties for the first time in the 2020 vintage. These are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec.

There are a couple of new Bordeaux orange wines to note, from Clos Puy Arnaud, with a Sauvignon Blanc macerated in amphoras, and from Château de Cérons, with the beautifully-name Coucher de Soleil (sunset).

A new white wine, Château Brane Cantenac Blanc, is also worth taking note of this year. It’s sourced from 3ha of clay-sand soils and made from 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Sémillon.

The first vintage was 2019, adding another name to the Médoc 1855 classifieds producing a dry white.

New grapes

A small selection of new grape varieties are now officially allowed within Bordeaux wines as of an INAO decision in January 2021.

These are four reds and two whites – Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan and Touriga Nacional for the reds, and Alvarinho and Liliorila for the whites.

These will be allowed for 5% of planted surface and 10% of the blend, on an experimental basis for the next 10 years but will not appear on the labels.

Several estates are planting small amounts to observe how they perform, but you are unlikely to find any in the blends until at least next year (assuming field grafting is undertaken).

The varieites are not allowed in all appellations, and are likely to be used mainly in AOC Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, Entre-deux-Mers and the Côtes de Bordeaux.

Personnel changes

At Château l’Evangile, long-time technical director Jean-Pascal Vazart has left, with Juliette Couderc taking over. Couderc has spent the last few years at Long Dai in China, DBR (Lafite)’s property on the Shandong Peninsula.

She will be working alongside Olivier Trégoat, technical director across all the non-Pauillac DBR (Lafite) estates in France.

Over at Chateau Giscours, Jérôme Poisson has taken over as technical director, replacing Lorenzo Pasquini who is now estate director at Château d’Yquem.

Poisson has worked with Saintsbury in the Carneros region of Napa, as well as with Hennessy in Cognac, Clos Apalta in Chile and Frescobaldi in Montalcino.

Martine Cazenave has retired from her role as general manager of Château Franc Mayne and handed over to Pierre Arnald, who arrives from working at Paris rugby club Stade Français for 7 years.

The technical director remains Sophie Mage, previously with Artémis Domaines at Château Grillet in the Rhône, and the owner is still the Savare family.

Over at Château Lafon-Rochet, the 2020 vintage sees a slight change in the consultancy team, with Jean-Claude Berrouet joined by Eric Boissenot.

Axel Marchal has also expanded his consultancies this year, with Château Taillan (a newly christened Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in the 2020 ranking), as well as Jacques and Fiona Thienpont’s Castillon estate, Château l’Hêtre.

Michel Rolland has now formerly handed over majority ownership of his oenology lab in the heart of Pomerol to colleagues Julien Viaud, Jean-Philippe Fort and Mikael Laizet.

It’s also worth underlining that Jean-Michel Comme has left Château Pontet-Canet, a move announced just after last year’s en primeur in May 2020.

The new technical director, Mattieu Bessonnet, spent 15 years working with Michel Chapoutier on his estates in Australia and Alsace (also biodynamically farmed, like Pontet-Canet).

Eloi Jacobs, formerly of Château Fonplégade in St-Emilion, is also now the technical director heading up Château Fourcas Hosten in Listrac.

New cellars

An evergreen story in Bordeaux, but the following are among new cellars either just opened or just about to:

• Château Haut-Bailly in Pessac-Léognan
• Château Lynch Bages in Pauillac
• Le Dôme in St-Emilion
• Château Figeac in St-Emilion

You may also like: 

How the Bordeaux 2008 first growths taste now

Tasting Petrus 2000 aged in space

Lafleur 2018 and the battle against climate change