Chateau Olivier

The history of Chateau Olivier could be traced back to the 12^th century, and by the 14^th century it was occupied by the d’Olivey family. It was already a grand estate then, with the owner frequently hosting Edward, the Black Prince. It remained with the family for centuries, and ended when Artus Olivier passed to his daughter Souveraine and her husband Jean Brun the property.

It was in turn passed to their daughter and her husband, Joachim de Segur, and further onto Guillaume le Conte in 1579 and Pierre de Geneste in 1597. In 1598 it came into the hands of Pierre de Lasserre, remaining in the family through to Marie Lasserre, and when Marie married Pierre Pesnel in 1663, the estate was inherited as a dowry.

After that the estate changed hands several times, first to Marie-Francoise who married Jacques de Secondat, who later sold to Joseph Bernard Malet in 1687. Yet more changes came, first to Fossier de Lestard in 1715, who renovated the chateau to a more elegant country house than a fortified castle, then to Jacques Legris, in 1747.

In 1784 it was sold to Souberrie-Dugarry family, then to Sergent-Bardwich in 1827, then to Fousset family in 1836, with none of these family planting any vine, until Charles-Joseph Maurice d’Etchegoyen acquired it in 1846. The new tenant carried out extensive restoration and refurbishment, and starting to plant vines.

It was later sold to Bousset-Salvat family, who in turn sold to Alexandre Watcher, through an auction. Through  marriage, Jacques de Bethmann acquired the estate in the early 20^th century, with the German family taking control until today, under Alexandre de Bethmann.

This estate is located just north of the town of Leognan, with Chateau Brown to the north. The entire estate covers 220 hectares, with the majority being forest, pasture and grazing land, and vineyards amounting to 55 hectares.

Today the estate is managed by Laurent Lebrun, producing both red and white and had both classified under the Graves classification in 1959, but the focus was on the white then. Since the time there are more plantings on red, with 45 hectares of predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and a small area of Cabernet Franc, and some Petit Verdot, averaging 20 years.

The white varieties cover 10 hectares, with slightly more Semillon over Sauvignon Blanc, and a small percentage of Muscadelle, with average vine age of 30 years. Planting density is between 7000 to 10000 vines per hectare. Vinification of the red is overseen by Guy Guimberteau, a student of Emile Peynaud, with the white consulted by Denis Dobourdieu.

The fruit is sorted manually at harvest and again before fermentation, with the white seeing some skin maceration, and some cold fermentation in oak barrels, of which one-third are new each vintage. The wine remains on lees for twelve months before bottling.

The reds see a period of maceration before fermentation in small truncated steel vats with temperature control, for 10 to 30 days. There is a period of post-fermentation maceration and malolactic fermentation in barrel, but only for twelve months on elevage.

The grand vin is Chateau Olivier, with about 6000 cases of white produced each year, and about 18000 cases for the red. There is a second wine called Seigneurerie d’Olivier and Le Dauphin d’Olivier.

I have recently tasted the 2008 vintage of both the red and white, and below are my tasting notes:

Appearance

Bright and clear, deep intensity ruby in color, with legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium intensity of black fruit such as blackberry, blackcurrant and plum, oak notes of vanilla and cedar, herbal notes of black tea, maturity notes of soy sauce. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry, with medium (+) acidity, high tannin of ripe but quite gripping on texture, the wine has a medium alcohol and a medium (+) body, with medium intensity of black fruit such as blackberry and black cherry, oak notes of cedar. The wine has a medium (-) finish.

Conclusion

Good quality Pessac-Leognan with reasonable concentration on the nose, but a bit simple, the wine has a good acidity but the tannin is overwhelming and gripping, requiring more time to mellow. With fair intensity on flavor, the palate however is also relatively simple and having a fairly short finish. The wine is barely ready to drink now, and can benefit from further ageing of another 3-5 years.

Appearance

Bright and clear, the wine is of medium intensity lemon color, with legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium intensity of green fruit such as grapefruit and ripe pear, citrus fruit such as lemon, herbaceous notes of grass and gooseberry, hints of maturity notes of honey, some vegetal notes of green olive. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry, with medium (+) acidity, the wine medium alcohol and medium body, showing medium (+) intensity flavors of green fruit such as pear and grapefruit, citrus notes of lemon, herbaceous notes of grass, some tropical fruit of passion fruit. The wine has a medium finish.

Conclusion

Acceptable quality Pessac-Leognan white wine with a reasonably intense nose, though the complexity is a bit lacking, the wine has good acidity to bring a freshness on the palate, with a more concentrated flavors but still lacking the range of characters that one would expect. The length is also rather mediocre. Ready to drink now, the wine can benefit from further ageing of another 2-3 years.