Pomerol vertical: Château La Cabanne

Any vertical has its fair share of drama behind the scenes. Hail storms, frost, changes of ownership, wider economic events that impact sales. Depending on where you are in the world that might extend to earthquakes and forest fires.

Bordeaux is usually spared the most dramatic of these, but a missing vintage in a vertical of La Cabanne has its own story behind it.

Scroll down for Jane Ansons’s La Cabanne tasting notes and scores

The reason is a fire that started on the night of March 22, 2010, just before the annual En Primeur tastings. The blaze began in a garage next to the main winery, but spread to the roof above the stainless steel vats, which then melted and destroyed the wine inside. This was the 2008 vintage that has just been moved back into the vats before bottling.

Owner François Estager lost not only the 2008 but part of the 2009 vintage, as well as wine from his other Pomerol estates Haut-Maillet and Plincette, and the St Emilion Domaine des Gourdins.

A heavy blow, but one that he responded to by building a smart new winery that has allowed him to continue to make exceptional Pomerol wines (although for the 2010 harvest following the fire he set up a large tent in front of his Montagne-St-Emilion estate where he installed newly-bought triconic vats, and as a result calls his – excellent – 2010 vintage his ‘camping wine’).

The new vat room in Pomerol was eventually finished just before the 2011 harvest.

The location of La Cabanne is worth noting, on the plateau between Trotanoy and Clinet, with deep clays dominant across the 9ha vineyard – something that surely accounts for the excellent consistency I found in the vertical.

Plantings are at 94% Merlot to 6% Cabernet France, but the blend can change significantly depending on vintage – both the 2012 and 2017 at 100% Merlot (I didn’t have the 2017 here, but the 2012 was not my favourite of the line-up, whether coincidentally or not).

The family history is also worth noting, as it makes the François Estager squarely at home in Pomerol, coming from the same Corrèze region of France as Jean-Baptiste Bourotte at JB Audy négociants and Christian and Edouard Moueix at Ets JP Moueix – two of the most significant merchants in Bordeaux, located next to each other on the Libourne quays and both prominent owners in Pomerol itself, with Clos de Clocher, Bonalgue, La Fleur Pétrus, Trotanoy and others. Corrèze has made an outsized contribution to this corner of Bordeaux.

In this case it was François Estager’s grandfather who arrived in Libourne in 1912 and began a négociant business. He then bought an estate in Montagne St Emilion, Château la Papeterie in 1934, followed by La Cabanne in 1952 – named after the huts (cabannes en bois) that once housed the vineyard workers in this area while the aristocratic vineyard owners lived in Libourne.

They were one of the early estates to begin working with ‘man of the moment’ Thomas Duclos as consultant, taking over from his mentor Gilles Pauquet in 2012, who had been consulting there since the 1970s.

Estager joined in 1995 following an earlier career working in clothing for professional sports teams. After his father died in 2001 he took over the estate full-time. He has done an excellent job of sharpening and of focusing the wines – something that was clear in this vertical that went right back to 1989.

It showcased some fascinating pairings, such as 2000 and 2001, and later 2009 and 2010, with the best vintages for me showing as 2009 and 2016. Invariably good value for so well located an estate, this is a property that proves that outside of the most iconic Pomerol estates, there are brilliant buys to look out for.

See Jane Ansons’s La Cabanne tasting notes and scores

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