Chateau Cap de Mourlin

The Capdemourlin family has been living in this estate for about 400 years, extending all the way to Antonie Capdemourlin in 1617. The family also owns other properties in St-Emilion, but this is the oldest among them.

The family was instrumental in the wine industry throughout the years: more recently with Jean Capdemourlin contributing to the formation of Jurade de St-Emilion, the local vinous brotherhood, as well as the St-Emilion Classification in 1955.

The estate was once divided in two, one owned by Jean Capdemourlin and the other by his nephew Jacques. Both were having the same label with the only difference on the name of the proprietor, causing a lot of confusion.

Jacques then reunited the two parts in 1983, and then invested in the renovation of the vineyard, vat-house and cellar, introducing modern wine-making equipment to the traditional barrel ageing.

Jacques Capdemourlin has now handed over the reins to his son Thierry to manage the estate, along with the other estates of the family, including Balestard La Tonnelle and Petit Faurie de Soutard.

The 14 hectares of vineyard lies on the north of St-Emilion, comprising of clay-limestone and sandy soils. Planted with 65% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the vines are averaging 34 years.

Manually harvested in small crates, the must is fermented in 100% stainless steel vats with temperature control. Maceration is carried out for at least 3 weeks, and then the wine is aged in 50% new and 50% one-year oak barrel for 15-18 months before bottling. Annual production is about 70,000 bottles.

I have tasted its 1994 vintage yesterday, one of my oldest St-Emilion in the cellar. Garnet in color, with a brownish rim showing the age of the wine, the nose is fairly light, showing some dried fruit notes of fig and raisin, maturity characters of wet leaves and vegetal, with some farmyard and meaty aromas and a hint of cinnamon.

The wine still got a good acidity on the palate, with a resolved and fine-grained tannin of medium body. Similar to the nose though, it is fairly light, showing prune, vegetal and some coffee notes. A rather short finish, overall it did not impress me at all and I would rank it as acceptable only. Probably a bit too old in my opinion, and the vintage was not impresive.

However, given all the investment and attention in the recent years I do expect the more recent vintages to do better and it would be good to taste the wine of 2000 or beyond, to further evaluate.