The Domain
When Jacques Thienpont visited this estate in the Côtes de Castillon during the harvest of 2015, he was immediately struck by the great location and the stunning view, perched at the end of the limestone plateau that runs eastwards from Saint Emilion. A Belgian couple, Stéphane and Béatrice Goubau, had owned the château for a decade and named it after their family: “Château Goubau”. During this time they converted the estate to organic farming. It comprises 10 hectares of vineyards surrounded by woods and pastures; a varied and rich biotope, situated at a height of 100 m on the Saint Philippe d’Aiguilhe plateau, the highest point of the Bordeaux region.
With his sister, Anne De Raeymaeker, Jacques decided to purchase the estate as an investment for the two branches of the Thienpont family who are close. The following year in 2017, the families had the opportunity to purchase the neighbouring domain, Chateau Montagne, a 25-hectare estate with an impressive chateau including the potential of planting a further 10 hectares of vineyards.
The families hired Maxime Thienpont, their nephew who had grown up at another family estate Chateau Labegorce Zédé in Margaux as manager and renamed the property L’Hêtre (the name of a beech tree in French), thus continuing the arboreal theme that Jacques has used for all his estates.
The vineyards enjoy good southeasterly exposure, a continuous gentle breeze and are divided between the limestone plateau and a mixture of clay, limestone and chalk soil slopes. The wines are fermented in concrete and oak vats and aged in a mixture of one-third new oak, one-third one year and one-third second year barrels. Although the Thienponts aged the 2015 vintage, the 2016 vintage was the first made entirely by the new owners and is therefore the first to carry the new name: L’Hêtre. The artwork for the labels was created by Belgian artist, Anne Van Hereweghen.
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Grape Variety
Bordeaux Blend
A Bordeaux Blend is a blended red wine that contains only those varieties that are authorized for use in the red wines of the Bordeaux region of France. Bordeaux is the most famous and highly coveted wine blend in the world. Like many wines with a long history, there’s a lot to learn, so we’re here to just cover the basics.
- Red Bordeaux blend is primarily composed of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, with smaller portions of Malbec and Petit Verdot.
- White Bordeaux blend is primarily made of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, with a splash of Muscadelle in the mix
While there are both red and white Bordeauxs, the name Bordeaux is primarily associated with the red wine blend. Red Bordeaux is a red wine that is always made from blending Cabernet Sauvignon wine and Merlot wine together, though the proportion of each depends on the location of the winery that made the wine.
- Left bank blends : tend to be higher in tannins, alcohol and acidity. They are powerful, rich wines that are said to age a bit better than wines from the Right Bank.
- Right bank blends : tend to be softer, less tannic and lower in alcohol and acidity. Because Merlot is the dominant grape, they are much more juicy and usually ready to be drunk much earlier than Left Bank Bordeauxs, and they’re often less expensive.
Cotes de Bordeaux Francs Wine
Cotes de Bordeaux Francs is the appellation title for Cotes de Bordeaux wines made specifically from three parishes at the very eastern edge of the Bordeaux wine region. These wines formerly took the title Cotes de Francs.
Saint-Cibard, Tayac and Francs are the three villages in question. They lie roughly eight miles (13km) north of the Dordogne river and are actually much closer to Bergerac than Bordeaux city itself. Nevertheless, the wines made here (both red and white, dry and sweet) are in the classic Bordeaux style and are produced from the classic grape varieties.
Cotes de Bordeaux Francs red wines, which constitute the vast majority of the appellation’s output, are made predominantly from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. The whites are fashioned from an equally traditional Bordelais blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle. The less globally successful varieties Colombard and Ugni Blanc are also permitted in Cotes de Bordeaux Francs white wines. However, with the international focus of this appellation, these will remain minority components.
The exact blend of each Cotes de Bordeaux Francs wine depends on several factors: the target market and style of the wine, the existing varieties planted in the vineyards and their precise terroir. Generally speaking, the topography and soils around Francs, with its slightly elevated limestone clay slopes, are well suited to growing Merlot. This, combined with Cabernet Franc, produces supple, well-structured red wines.
The Cotes de Bordeaux appellation was created in 2009 to bring together several cotes of Bordeaux under a single banner – the idea being to to improve the marketability of the wines in question and simplify the overall Bordelais appellation structure. Individually, these appellations were struggling to find sufficient marketing resources to combat the increasing popularity of Bordeaux-style wines from emerging wine regions, particularly in the New World.
The process began officially in 1985, when the presidents of five cotes appellations founded the Association des Cotes de Bordeaux. This later became Les Cinq Cotes de Bordeaux, as confusion had arisen between the first name and that of the entirely separate Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux title. By the end of 2003, the decision had been taken to create the Cotes de Bordeaux appellation, with the geographical denominations Blaye, Cadillac, Castillon and Francs. After another few years of negotiations and red tape, the appellation was confirmed and ratified.
Credit : https://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-cotes+de+bordeaux+francs
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