Chateau Belgrave

Chateau Belgrave is located in St-Laurent, west of the commune of St-Julien, not far from Camensac and La Tour Carnet. The history could be traced back to 1740, when an attractive hunting lodge was built. That history could still be found from the small ferret, beneath a crown, on the label.

At the time the property was known as Coutenceau, still so named when in ownership of Bruno Devez in 1855 during the classification. In later years it was christened Belgrave by an English owner, who named it in honour of Belgravia, London.

In 1902 it was acquired by Marcel Alibert, a retired banker who owned also Camensac and Les Ormes de Pez in St-Estephe. Under his tenure the estate was well kept, but in 1920s he sold the estate to Albert Spee, and the estate began to see its decline, probably also due to the economic depression and World War II.

In 1956 it was acquired by Guges, but after his death it was sold again, to Dourthe in 1979. Today it was run on behalf of Dourthe by Olivier Gayrard, vineyard manager, and Frederic Bonnaffous, estate manager. In the cellar Antoine Gonzalez oversees the fermentation and subsequent works, consulted by Michel Rolland.

The estate covers 61 hectares, entitled to the Haut-Medoc appellation but just a small stream away from St-Julien, with the typical gravelly character of the Medoc on deeper clays. There are two gently rolling hills, which at the foot is more sand.

Today Merlot accounts for 42% and mostly are found on the more sandy areas, with Cabernet Sauvignon covering 50% on the gravel portions, and 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. The planting density is high at 10000 vines per hectare across 34 hectares, with the remaining areas planting at 6500 vines per hectare.

The rows are interplanted with grass, and the vines are trained high to improve exposure. Harvest is manual, into small trays but in recent past machine harvesting had been practiced. Dourthe installed new equipment in 1982, including stainless steel vats with temperature control, as well as a barrel cellar.

The works were consolidated in 2004 with the addition of a new reception area, new fermentation area before delivering to the vats by conveyor, of which 35 are stainless steel and 6 are wooden. The new vats vary in size to match to specific parcel of vines, and also set up for micro-oxygenation.

The wine will then go into oak for 12 to 15 months before bottling. The grand vin is Chateau Belgrave of about 21000 cases and a second wine called Diane de Belgrave of 9000 cases.

I have recently tasted the 2005 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 of black fruit such as blackberry, cassis and plum, maturity notes of savory and sweet tobacco, pungent spice of licorice, oak notes of cedar and vanilla, animal notes of leather. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry, with medium acidity, the wine has medium tannin of ripe and velvety texture, medium alcohol and medium (+) body, showing medium (+) intensity flavors of black fruit such as blackberry, plum and cassis, MLF notes of cream, oak notes of cedar and vanilla, sweet spice of cloves. The wine has a medium finish.

Conclusion

Good quality Haut-Medoc with a fairly intense nose showing good complexity, the wine has a robust structure, but in good balance overall. The palate is equally intense and showing good range of flavors, coupled with a reasonable finish on the length. Overall a wine that is enjoyable, good value for money, ready to drink now but can further develop for another 3-5 years.