Bordeaux: Three châteaux on the rise
Stephen Brook, our Contributing Editor and expert on Bordeaux, has followed developments at many estates over decades of visiting. Here he reveals the vision and financial input that have transformed the quality of the wines at a trio of them.
I have been visiting Bordeaux for 40 years, observing its constant evolution, mostly for the better. Mediocre wines don’t sell, and owners need profits. This has given them an incentive to invest, improve viticulture and adapt to fluctuating market conditions.
The following are three very different properties that have changed radically over the decades, and thanks to a combination of money, passion and imagination, they have been transformed.
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Château Smith Haut Lafitte
Pessac-Léognan, Cru Classé de Graves
For almost 90 years, this large Graves estate was owned by the Bordeaux négociant Eschenauer. The wines weren’t bad, but they were very dull. An abundant crop leading to a full cellar was the goal.
In the late 1980s, former Olympic skier and retail tycoon Daniel Cathiard was selling his business and keen to acquire a wine estate.
In Burgundy, any properties for sale were small, but in Bordeaux, he learned, he could buy estates on a larger scale.
‘I was attracted to Smith because it had 80ha in a single parcel,’ he recalls. ‘It was a classified growth, so I sensed a potential that Eschenauer hadn’t yet realised.’
Daniel and his equally dynamic wife Florence, a fellow ski champion and a formidable advertising executive, threw themselves into the project with an ambition that astonished their neighbours.
They added their own cooperage – a rarity in Bordeaux – and created a resort among the vines. A rustic-style hotel was supported by two restaurants, one of which soon shone with a Michelin star or two.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. The chef’s tangled love life affected consistency in the kitchen. And when I dined with the Cathiards during the soft launch of their top restaurant, dusk fell and the frogs that inhabited the adjoining lake turned up the volume.
‘This is unbearable,’ declared Florence. ‘We must do something! Can we shoot them?’ A less radical solution was found, and today the resort flourishes.
Eye for detail
‘We knew our project would work in the long term,’ Daniel reassures me, ‘because there was no competition.’
Its success was compounded once they opened their wine spa, Les Sources de Caudalie, in 1999. Offering immersion in crushed wine skins, the spa became an international sensation, with a wide range of linked beauty products.
Florence always complains that Caudalie, run by their daughter Mathilde and financially separate from the wine estate, employs 1,400 people and has a far higher turnover than the château.
Daniel’s focus remains the wine. ‘We developed the cooperage to show that we really care about every aspect of production. And we’ve always been passionate about sorting grapes. Hand-sorting is tiring for workers, so we welcomed technological developments such as optical sorting.’
The Cathiards also expanded their holdings, in 1994 acquiring Château Cantelys – a little south of Smith Haut Lafitte, and now the source of a more affordable wine – and in 2012 a major portion of neighbouring Château Le Thil, lying just to its northwest.
They are also partners in properties in Pomerol and Sauternes, and own a wine estate in Napa Valley, California.
Forward momentum
As one might expect, Smith is now farmed using biodynamic methods (certified organic in 2019), and horses do much of the ploughing.
Long-term winemaker Fabien Tietgen monitors picking dates intensely and says they tend to harvest reds a bit earlier and whites a bit later.
My own view is that the white wine is now in the very top tier of Bordeaux whites. Daniel, rather immodestly, agrees, and thinks this is due to late picking, the inclusion of Sauvignon Gris in the blend and, of course, a perfect terroir.
The Cathiards aren’t resting on their laurels. Tucked into a corner of the estate is their experimental Chai Furtif, which Daniel translates as ‘stealth cellar’. Here, carbon dioxide is captured during fermentation and converted into bicarbonate of soda; rainfall is cleaned and reused.
‘The grand vin is still produced at our main cellars, but the younger vines are fermented here, with a goal of minimising energy use,’ says Daniel.
To that end, close by is Smith’s latest development, the avant-garde Gaïa building (pictured, above) – a striking example of bioclimatic architecture that harmoniously blends with its natural surroundings, designed by architect Jérémy Nadau.
Opened in April, the structure features a chestnut-shingled roof designed to merge seamlessly into the landscape over time.
Partially embedded into the earth, the building leverages the ground’s natural insulation to maintain stable interior temperatures, enhancing thermal comfort.
Its west-facing facade supports photovoltaic panels, reducing energy consumption, while the east side opens onto the vineyards, offering panoramic views from an elevated tasting room.
Natural ventilation is achieved through strategically placed windows, and rainwater is collected for reuse, reflecting the estate’s commitment to sustainability and innovation in winemaking.
Meanwhile, the wines have never been better.
Château Bélair-Monange
St-Emilion, 1er Grand Cru Classé
For several decades, the Dubois-Challon family co-owned two Bordeaux first growth estates: the revered Ausone and Bélair.
The Château Ausone ownership was complicated, and after court cases, the Vauthier family became the sole owners in 1997. Madame Dubois-Challon entrusted the winemaking at Bélair to Pascal Delbeck, who showed me round both properties in the mid-1980s.
A slightly eccentric, bearded figure, Delbeck liked to invent his own equipment, such as a punchdown machine, and he used organically raised hens to produce the egg whites for fining.
Unfortunately, the wines were inconsistent, and even a great vintage such as 1982 (tasted four times over 20 years) was a disappointment, though I had more positive notes on 1995 and 2000.
Many believe Delbeck picked too early and that his high trellising system blocked sunlight and retarded ripening.
Madame Dubois-Challon died in 2003 and left Bélair to Delbeck. It proved a mixed blessing, as the inheritance taxes were crippling. He compared his situation to that of a spider hanging from a single thread.
In 2006, Delbeck ceded a third-share in the estate to the JP Moueix company, already a major owner of Right Bank properties.
With a foot in that door, it was only a matter of time before Moueix became sole owners in 2008, at which point they renamed the estate Bélair-Monange, in memory of Anne-Adèle Moueix (born Monange), Jean-Pierre Moueix’s mother and Christian Moueix’s grandmother, who settled in St-Emilion in 1931.
No expense spared
Most of the Bélair-Monange vines grow on the celebrated western limestone plateau of St-Emilion, but a nasty problem lurked below.
The limestone had been quarried since Roman times, but extraction was poorly regulated and the quarries, which had galleries four levels deep, were in danger of collapse.
Third-generation head Edouard Moueix says his father Christian didn’t hesitate. Complex works were undertaken to fill some areas with concrete walls and to reinforce the pillars holding up each storey.
It cost a fortune, but without the expenditure the vineyards would not have been viable. The job was completed in 2013. Essential replanting could only begin once the quarries were stable.
Consequently, for many years the estate’s vines were young, which may have prompted the decision to incorporate the 10ha of neighbouring first growth Château Magdelaine, which Moueix already owned.
It saddened many when Magdelaine lost its independence after the 2011 vintage, as it had an intense character and charm of its own, but Edouard believes its inclusion added complexity to the Bélair-Monange wines.
In 2017, they snapped up neighbouring 2.3ha Clos La Madeleine. It had not been well managed, so Moueix replanted the whole vineyard, which is being absorbed into Bélair-Monange from this year.
There was more to come.
Material improvement
The Swiss architectural firm Herzog & De Meuron, which had designed and built Moueix’s Dominus winery in Napa, California in the late 1990s, was commissioned to build a 10,000m 2 winery within the Magdelaine vineyard – a project initiated in 2016 and completed in 2023.
It was constructed in a light concrete and is ‘tied’ to an adjacent 19th-century limestone house via a long concrete roof.
‘Once we had finished reinforcing the quarries, allowing us to start renewing the vineyard, it became obvious we would need a new facility to express in the wines the efforts made in the vineyard,’ Edouard says.
‘[The architects’] passion for wine encouraged them to adapt the aesthetic expression to our many technical requests, offering us a unique tool to fully express the vineyard’s characteristics.’
The winery is equipped with 24 concrete vats from 49-hectolitre to 116-hectolitre and 20 stainless steel vats from 23-hectolitre to 46-hectolitre allowing for optimal adaptation to each vineyard parcel and precise vinification, ensuring the best expression of each individual terroir.
An extra 278-hectolitre vat is only used for the blending of the final wines.
‘We always favour the concrete vats as they allow gentle extractions, resulting in a balanced and delicate wine,’ says Edouard.
It’s evident that the St-Emilion premier grand cru classé under Moueix bears little relation to that once owned by Pascal Delbeck.
Confronted with many problems, the Moueix team took Bélair-Monange by the scruff of its neck, transformed it and enlarged it.
The investment must have been colossal, but in terms of quality, the effort will surely be rewarded.
Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey
Sauternes, 1er Cru Classé
In the 1960s and 1970s, Sauternes was in the doldrums.
It was costly to produce. It depended on noble rot (botrytis) for its identity and quality, yet the fungus infected the grapes at unpredictable times, and in some vintages it never arrived at all.
Moreover, maximum permitted yields were less than half those of red Bordeaux.
Botrytis usually arrived in waves, after damp spells, so selective harvesting, sometimes stretching over two months, was required in order to produce a wine with real typicity.
A few estates maintained tradition and quality, but at a cost.
During this period, most first growths produced wines of middling quality. Selective harvesting was rare or perfunctory, chaptalisation (adding sugar prior to or during fermentation, to raise the potential alcohol) was common, and barrel-ageing the exception rather than the rule.
Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey also produced lacklustre wines. Then in 1983 a change in fortunes began.
The négociant house of Cordier owned Lafaurie from 1917 to 1984. By 1983, its winemaker Michel Laporte had resumed limited selective harvesting and oak-ageing, and the wines improved.
A year later, GDF Suez, an international energy company, bought the estate. Laporte stayed at the helm until he retired in 2000, and was succeeded by his son Yannick, who remains as vineyard manager.
Suez invested in the estate and restored the château. Later vintages such as 1988, 1989 and 1990 showed that the success of the 1983 was no fluke.
Highest ambition
It’s hard to make money in Sauternes, so it wasn’t surprising when in 2014 Suez put Lafaurie on the market. It found a purchaser in Silvio Denz (pictured, above), a Swiss businessman who owned not only Château Faugères in St-Emilion, but the prestigious glass producer Lalique.
Denz could see a missed opportunity at Lafaurie. He had already created a Lalique-themed restaurant in Alsace and he applied a similar concept here.
‘Because Suez used the château for conferences and training, it was in good condition with plenty of bedrooms,’ says Denz. ‘It wasn’t difficult to transform it into a hotel, and provide a gastronomic restaurant.’
Although oenotourism was nascent in the pretty Sauternes region, there was nothing on this scale, and Denz had the luxury market to himself.
In June 2018, the sumptuous hotel and its no-holds-barred restaurant opened its doors – under chef Jérôme Schilling, it earned its first Michelin star within the year, followed by a second in 2022.
Ahead of the trend
But what of the wine? It was already excellent, but Denz hired the white-wine expert Professor Denis Dubourdieu as his consultant and, after Dubourdieu’s untimely death in 2016, his colleague Dr Valérie Lavigne.
So quality was maintained, and in 2019 Vincent Cruège, who had long worked with André Lurton at Château La Louvière in Pessac-Léognan, was hired as technical director for the group.
Silvio Denz knew well that an estate entirely focused on sweet wine would struggle to be profitable so he changed course.
The historic vineyard classified in 1855 was just over half the 36ha planted today. It would still be used to produce Sauternes, but the remainder would either be leased to other producers, or used for the Grand Vin Sec dry white.
This wasn’t a novel idea. Château d’Yquem had long produced its dry Ygrec, and other first growths produced dry white wine, though hardly of exceptional quality in the past.
Lafaurie became part of a trend in which châteaux Suduiraut and Sigalas Rabaud also participated: releasing high-quality dry white at a fairly high price.
It made sense. The reduction in volume for Sauternes could be recouped by a higher price for such a prestigious product, and by offering alongside it a fine dry white.
In this way, Denz transformed Lafaurie-Peyraguey, and also made it a tourist destination. Sauternes needs solutions to its somnolent image, and Denz’s approach – he calls it ‘cross-marketing’ – may well provide one.
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