Chateau Valandraud

Chateau Valandraud lies on the very outskirts of St-Emilion, near the hamlet of St-Emilion de Lisse, just 1.5km from the boundary of the appellation. The first vintage started in 1991, with the vineyard purchased by Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle in 1989. Jean-Luc is an Algerian, who had no background on wine except when working in the restaurant business, where he got some contacts on wine.

There are two vineyards contributing to the original Valandraud vintages, one being a very small parcel of 0.6 hectare located between Chateau Pavie-Macquin and La Clotte on the eastern periphery of St-Emilion. The second parcel is a little larger at 1.2 hectare, on the sandy plain near Saint Sulpice de Faleyrens, which is surprising as the terroir was not much prized.

With little money the work was hands-on, with Murielle responsible for the vineyard, adopting careful pruning, leaf-plucking by hand, and a green harvest. Jean-Luc was responsible for monitoring the fruit for ripeness, to decide when to pick and make the wine. The name of the property reflects the location of the first plot of vines, val for vallon de Fongaban, whereas andraud was Murielle’s maiden name.

The first vintage 1991 was difficult, and across Bordeaux there were few successes. The Thunevins picked a small crop and transporting the harvest to the garage workshop in the centre of St-Emilion, where pigeage and batonnage were practiced, commonly associated with Burgundy. The grapes are destemmed by hand because the mechanical one was not available due to cost, and pigeage was also done by hand.

The work was adviced from Alain Vauthier, and some new oak barrels were used. The approach was inspired by Le Pin, and only 1280 bottles were made in the first vintage, starting the trend of the new garage wine style. The 1992 vintage was also difficult because of the rain, and Murielle carried out extensive leaf-thinning to improve ventilation and reduce risk of rot.

Green harvesting and selection brought the yield down to just 30 hl/ha, with only 4500 bottles. A second wine was produced called Virginie de Valandraud, named after their daughter. The wine was very good and stood out in the vintage, catching attention with Michel Bettane and Robert Parker, but more famous because of the high price per bottle, which matched the release price of Mouton-Rothschild, Lafite and Margaux.

The interest rocketed especially from US consumers, beginning the garage wine phenomenon. The winemaking operations of Valandraud were born of necessity because of funding and scale. Nowadays many critics are questioning the quality and longevity of the wine so the prices drop a fair bit.

The Thunevins now has slowly moved the chateau away from the garagiste style, to more concerned with the terroir, with the principal acquisition of Chateau Bel-Air-Ouy. That property now metamorphosed into Valandraud, and the property successfully got included in the 2012 classification, to the premier grand cru classe B.

The Thunevins now own 24 hectares, with about 10 hectares contributing to Chateau Valandraud, with the remaining producing wines like Clos Badon, also some white wines. They also own several hectares in Pomerol, Margaux and Lalande de Pomerol. The vineyard here is quite distant from other premier grand cru classe, with the only notable neighbor being Chateau de Pressac.

There are some Sauvignon Blanc planted at high density, producing a white wine that is now on sale. The vines in the original 1991 vineyard no longer contribute to the wine, but only those in the old Chateau Bel-Air-Ouy, with 8500 vines per hectare, double Guyot-pruned, with many processes still by hand.

In late 1990s plastic sheetings were laid between rows of vines to encourage run off of rainwater, but INAO required the wine as a result to be marketed as VDT. Jean-Luc kept the vines separate, and sold the wine as L’Interdit de Valandraud. Now with more money, harvest is still by hand but the fruit is transported and sorted with the aid of a machine.

After cold maceration the fruit is fermented in a mix of wood, cement and stainless steel vessels, with temperature control. Pigeage and remontage are used, and after post-fermentation the wine is run off into barrel of 100% new for malolactic fermentation, with no fining and filtration.

Virginie de Valandraud now is regarded as parallel cuvees, with the true second wine being Le 3 de Valandraud. The wines are blind-tasted to determine the proportion in the final blend, with the rest downgraded to second wine. It is normally dominated by Merlot, with some Cabernet Franc and others. The grand vin will see 18-30 months in oak.

The white is made from Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Semillon, with cold maceration and pressing, fermented and allowed to age for 10-12 months, with some new and old barrels. Virigine de Valandraud is handled similarly but the assemblage depends on the vintage, with less new oak used. A generic Bordeaux blend is introduced under the name Bad Boy, plus a Bad Girl which is a Cremant de Bordeaux.

I have recently tasted the 2003 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, it is of deep intensity ruby color, with garnet rims and legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium intensity aromas showing black fruit of bramble, dark plum and blackberry, pungent spice of licorice, maturity notes of forest floor, some dried fruit of prune, kernel notes of dark chocolate, oak notes of cedar. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry with medium acidity, medium (+) tannin of ripe and velvety texture, the wine has medium (+) alcohol but did not feel warming, balancing with medium body and medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as blackberry, dark cherries and plum, kernel notes of cocoa, maturity notes of tobacco, sweet spice of nutmeg. The wine has a long finish.

Conclusion

Very good quality St-Emilion garage wine, with highly complex aromas though not showing overt intensity, a delicate and elegant wine on the nose, but on the palate it is quite different, with good concentration and ripeness jumping out, with equally impressive range of flavors. Despite fairly high on alcohol level, it did not show any warming, complemented by the body and flavors, to give a long finish. It is ready to drink now though can benefit from further ageing of another 3-5 years.