Chateau Laroque
Chateau Laroque, St Emilion
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)

Located atop the hills surrounding St-Christophe des Bardes to the northeast of St-Emilion, Laroque is the largest estate in the appellation.

Chateau Laroque

One of two barrel rooms at Chateau Laroque
(Image credit: Credit Unknown)

From the early 1960s the vineyard was replanted and expanded, from 40ha (hectares) in 1962 to 61ha today, all on contiguous plots: rare even for small estates, and unique in St-Emilion. From the whole estate, on a plateau of clay-limestone with shallow soil, only the best 27ha are used for Laroque, the remainder being sold as Château Peymouton or the estate’s second wine Les Tours de Laroque.

Since 1982, winemaking has been in the hands of Bruno Sainson, the much-respected director of the property, who retired last year. Space is not an issue at Laroque and the vast fermentation cellar contains sufficient temperature-controlled cement and stainless steel vats for plots to be vinified separately. Generally the vatting period for the Merlot is 25 days and 23 days for the two Cabernets. Laroque is aged in 50% new oak, while for Peymouton the figure is just 15%.

Until the 1996 re-classification of St-Emilion, the whole vineyard was St-Emilion grand cru, the submission of the 27ha of Laroque being accepted for elevation to grand cru classé. Although well-known due to its history and size, the name remained in the middle ranks of the appellation until recently, following the arrival in 2004 of Xavier Beaumartin and his wife to take personal charge and revitalise the previously uninhabited château.

Steven Spurrier
Steven Spurrier
Decanter Magazine, Consultant Editor
Decanter’s consultant editor Steven Spurrier joined the wine trade in London in 1964 and later moved to Paris where he bought a wine shop in 1971, and then opened L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school in 1973. Spurrier staged the historic 1976 blind tasting between wines from California and France, the Judgment of Paris, and in the 1980s he wrote several wine books and created the Christie’s Wine Course with then senior wine director Michael Broadbent, a veteran Decanter columnist. In 1988 Spurrier returned to the UK to focus on writing and consultancy, with his clients including Singapore Airlines. He has won several awards, including Le Personalité de l’Année (oenology) 1988 for services to French wine and the Maestro Award in honour of California wine legend André Tchelistcheff (2011) and is president of the Circle of Wine Writers as well as founding the Wine Society of India. He also produced his own wine, Bride Valley Brut, from his vines in Dorset.