The 2021 classic was a difficult yr in Bordeaux – however at Saint-Emilion property Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, it was additionally the primary with Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse on the helm. We visited the younger vigneronne to seek out out what it means to tackle such a legacy. Forward of the discharge of the 2023 classic of Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse, we’re trying again on the meteoric return of this tiny Saint-Émilion property.
Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse clearly has some implausible terroir. Certainly one of solely a handful of top-rated Premier Grand Cru Classé B estates, it’s superbly positioned on the southwest-facing slopes of Saint-Emilion’s well-known limestone plateau.
The property gained notoriety with the discharge of its 1990 – a wine Robert Parker professed as being “the wine of the classic” en primeur – in his view beating different legendary wines from the yr, akin to Margaux, Pétrus and Latour. After maturation in bottle, he went additional and declared that it might be “one of many biggest wines made this century”. A legend was born.
This historic property has been within the Duffau-Lagarrosse household since 1847, however Joséphine’s current take-over was removed from easy. Previous to the sale, it was owned by 30 members of her household. With the bulk desirous to promote the property. Decided for it to stay a part of the Duffau-Lagarrosse legacy, the one choice was to try to purchase it herself – no small feat for the then 30-year-old.
However this prime-positioned Saint-Emilion property had loads of bidders queuing to snap it up, undeterred by the €75 million price ticket – a worth far past Duffau-Lagarrosse’s means. Initially, it was a bidding warfare between neighbouring Ch. Angélus’s Stéphanie de Boüard and Clos Fourtet’s Matthieu Cuvelier. Then, nonetheless, the Courtin-Clarins household stepped in – and supplied to associate with Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse.
Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse within the winery
Joséphine met with Prisca Courtin-Clarins, Clarins CEO and the third technology to run her household’s beauty empire (which stays 100% family-owned). Based on Duffau-Lagarrosse, they immediately hit it off and the synergy between them was apparent: two younger, gifted, formidable French girls. Duffau-Lagarrosse had all of the technical know-how to make nice wine, in addition to a life-long expertise of the property.
Courtin-Clarins, in the meantime, had all of the business expertise and monetary backing to assist handle and develop the enterprise facet of the property. Joséphine invited Prisca to see the château and he or she cherished it. Inside a month of assembly, that they had put in their very own bid. With the household connection, their bid was favoured and the 2 of them grew to become co-directors on twelfth April 2021.
Strolling across the superb labyrinth of limestone caves beneath the property (overlaying 650 square-metres), the place Duffau-Lagarrosse now ages the wine, you’ll be able to see how proud she is of her household property and the way excited she is for the longer term – now beneath her management.
She admits that all of it occurred a bit shortly. After deciding to comply with in her household’s oenological footsteps, she had intentionally stayed away from Bordeaux for so long as she might, understanding that her household ties would ultimately pull her again. Born and raised in Pomerol after graduating, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than she was travelling all over the world, studying to make wine in areas apart from Bordeaux.
Duffau-Lagarrosse has a formidable resumé, working beneath among the world’s finest winemakers. She labored with Ch. Margaux’s Phillipe Bascaules when he was at Inglenook in Napa Valley, earlier than heading to Hawkes Bay in New Zealand to work on Bordeaux blends in a contrasting local weather. Following her stint there, she went to Mexico to work on a venture with well-known Bordelais marketing consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, earlier than returning to France and dealing in Burgundy with Maxime Cheurlin at Domaine Georges Noëllat – somebody who had inherited an historic household property at a equally younger age.
Of all of the vintages to tackle such a legacy, nonetheless, 2021 was removed from the simplest – a yr that requested all the pieces of its makers. “It was not simple,” she admits, a smile sneaking onto her face, “however I actually loved it.” As we tasted the 2021, we requested whether or not she’d needed to chaptalise – a standard apply within the yr’s cool situations. For a millennial born within the period of local weather change, it was completely new to her, however she felt it was wanted to spherical out the mid-palate. “So I referred to as Burgundy,” she jests, a twinkle in her eye. Regardless of its challenges, Duffau-Lagarrosse could be very happy along with her 2021 – the primary full classic beneath her lead – and as she must be.
The attractive cellars carved out of limestone, beneath the vineyards
She actually respects what earlier winemaker, Nicolas Thienpont, had executed with the property over the past 12 years – constantly producing one of many high wines of the classic. With out swerving away from his type, Duffau-Lagarrosse remains to be eager to place her personal bent on the wine. Lowering the quantity of recent oak is maybe the obvious first step – though that can be comprehensible contemplating the classic situations in 2021. She can be eager to verify extraction ranges are very fastidiously monitored and this was notably necessary in 2021. “We needed to query all the pieces,” says Duffau-Lagarrosse, however the challenges proved to be a fast-track for understanding the terroir she had inherited.
And she or he wasn’t alone – hiring two of Bordeaux’s main consultants, Axel Marchand (professor of oenology at Bordeaux College) and Julien Viaud (the co-owner of Michel Rolland’s consultancy, which in response to Duffau-Lagarrosse, has a contrasting and complementary strategy to Rolland’s philosophy of excessive extraction and excessive proportions of recent oak). The brand new workforce is actually one of the vital thrilling and constructive developments in Saint-Emilion – particularly given the current tumult within the appellation.
There’s actually a stunning steadiness to the Ch. Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse in 2021, and the wine has captured the gorgeous, scented fragrance of classic’s high examples. It’s a wine that exhibits the promise of this vigneronne and deal with – one that’s set to compete with the easiest within the appellation. The legend protected within the fingers of its rightful proprietor.
