The producers bringing change to Bordeaux
Andrew Jefford selects five families and initiatives bringing much needed change to Bordeaux, from production to education and sales.
In his article on the problems with Bordeaux (and how to fix them), from the October issue of Decanter, Andrew Jefford included five examples of families and individuals who are working to address some of the region’s image issues.
These include winemaking families taking a fresh look at everything from their viticultural practices, to their winemaking and their packaging, to a new programme designed to promote greater inclusion among new wine professionals.
The Cathiard family
No one has done more to open the window of welcome to Bordeaux over the past 34 years than Daniel and Florence Cathiard (pictured above).
This dynamic and entrepreneurial couple began as competitive skiers, then had successful independent business careers before buying the dilapidated Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Pessac-Léognan in 1990.
Not only impeccably restored but also supercharged as a hospitality centre and entrepreneurial seedbed, Smith Haut Lafitte is now often the first (and sometimes only) port of call for visitors of all sorts to the region, from VIPs and celebrities to the mildly curious.
It’s celebrated for its gigantic vineyard sculptures (including Barry Flanagan’s famous hare), for its Michelin two-star La Grand’Vigne and more affordable Table du Lavoir restaurants, for its luxury Sources de Caudalie hotel and for its 10ha ‘open-air museum’ the Forest of the Senses.
Both of the Cathiards’ daughters, Mathilde and Alice, have (with their husbands) built significant global businesses that now dwarf Smith Haut Lafitte itself – but are derived from Bordeaux vineyard and hospitality roots. Yes, it can be done.
The Despagne family
The Entre-deux-Mers area, with 1,784ha under vine in 2022 for its AP wines (1,520ha for whites, according to the regional Syndicat, 264ha for reds), has often been painted as a Bordeaux bad land where wine-growers must skirmish endlessly with banks and quality eludes even the assiduous.
The Despagne family, based in Naujan-et-Postiac for two centuries and led since 1999 by the energetic Thibault Despagne, along with his sister Basaline Granger Despagne (pictured above), demolishes this cliché.
The family (describing itself as ‘gourmets, free- thinkers, explorers’) now has 180ha of vines, having stealthily expanded its holdings by identifying and buying some of the sub-region’s finest terroir morsels.
It planted its finest historical parcel, Girolate, at a higher-than-usual density (10,000 plants/ha), and has since extended these plantings to another three sites, selling the wine under this parcel name (and the white version in a Burgundy bottle: 2018, £44.99 Waitrose Cellar).
Other Despagne successes include La Meute, Naujan and Biface, all beautifully labelled, while Tour de Mirambeau and Mont-Pérat (where Thibault lives, and which makes an appearance in the Drops of God manga) are single-property wines.
Le Bordeaux du Paysan and Pom ‘N’ Roll
Claire Laval, the ninth generation of her family to own the 6.9ha Gombaude- Guillot near the church in Pomerol, was this small but lustrous region’s organic and later biodynamic pioneer.
Her husband Dominique Techer is a former mayor of Pomerol and spokesperson for the Confédération Paysanne de Gironde farmers’ syndicate; he has also been a long-standing critic of the Bordeaux authorities.
Their son Olivier, meanwhile, is an innovator for accessible, low-input wines made in a natural or near-natural style and sold outside the normal Bordeaux circuits (not least through the family’s négociant company Satellite Wines – motto ‘Paysan wines for noble palates’ – working with a large group of like-minded young growers across France).
Pom ‘N’ Roll was originally a Vin de France, but the Pomerol allusion in the name meant that it now declares its origins (2019, £46.99 Old Chapel Cellars).
It’s a blend of old-vine Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc from the estate, aged in part in amphora.
The beautifully labelled Le Bordeaux du Paysan wines, meanwhile, are a joint venture with Entre-deux-Mers wine-grower Nicolas Roux: Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc crafted in pure, fruit-first styles suitable for chilling (Rouge 2021, £21.70 Cave Bristol).
Château Le Rey – Vignobles K group
The ‘K’ stands for Kwok, meaning the Bordeaux-loving, Hong Kong-based ex-banker Peter Kwok. Working with Jean-Christophe Meyrou, the Kwok family now has a group of seven Bordeaux properties led by Bellefont-Belcier in St-Émilion and including Enclos Tourmaline and La Patache in Pomerol.
Of particular interest, though, is the 12ha Le Rey in Castillon, jointly owned by Kwok, Meyrou and Belgian importer Philippe Lambrecht. This property has two contrasting soil types in close proximity: blue and green clay and limestone.
‘I decided to make two very different wines there,’ says Meyrou, ‘using the same blend: 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc’; steel and amphora ageing accentuates the terroir differences.
These terroir cuvées are sold in Burgundy bottles; Les Argileuses comes from clay sites (‘spicy, round, deep, with voluptuous tannins’, in Meyrou’s words; 2022, US$20-$25 MacArthur Beverages, Wine.com), and Les Rocheuses from limestone (‘elegant, salty, with a long middle palate’; 2018, US$35 JJ Buckley).
‘The two terroirs,’ he specifies, ‘are separated by a difference of 75m. Who said that Bordeaux always tastes the same?’
Bordeaux Mentor Week
The Bordeaux Mentor Week event was created in 2022 by former Decanter Bordeaux correspondent Jane Anson, author of Inside Bordeaux (£60 Berry Bros & Rudd, 2020), together with brand creator and marketing specialist Chinedu Rita Rosa.
The week brings seven global scholars to Bordeaux once each year to further the aim of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion for those starting out in wine sales and communication.
The initiative is supported by the Gérard Basset Foundation as well as the Académie du Vin Foundation and the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh.
Bordeaux badly needs a refresh when it comes to its gatekeepers and interlocutors, just as it does with respect to its image and its wine iterations.
This excellent initiative helps bring that about.
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