Château Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux Moulis-en-Médoc 2022
Château Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux Moulis-en-Médoc 2022
Château Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux is a progressive, top selection of prestige plots from the Cordonnier family of Château Anthonic in Bordeaux’s Médoc region. Jean-Baptiste Cordonnier and his son Théophile are leaders in the agroforestry and regenerative farming movements, which incorporate nature into the vineyard, improving biodiversity and soil health, while fighting climate change.
Acquired in the spring of 2022 by the Cordonnier family, the vintage marks the beginning of a new era at Château Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux with a reorganization and revitalization of their vineyards. In accordance with the high standards of their vineyard work, the family performs a meticulous double selection of grapes (a process in line with the quality level of classified growths), with the goal of producing one exceptional wine from the Grand Poujeaux plateau with its distinctive Garonne gravel over limestone.
Following a thorough soil study of the 10 hectares of Château Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux acquired by the Cordonnier family, they separated just 3.5 hectares of cabernet sauvignon and merlot parcels planted exclusively on the easternmost side of the appellation, on the Grand Poujeaux plateau, for the production of a Grand Vin. The plateau is an ideal area, where Garonne gravel from the Gunz period (which offers exceptional drainage and superior ripening) sits directly atop the same limestone subsoils as Saint-Estèphe, Margaux, and Pauillac.
In the selection process, they have selected more cabernet sauvignon to bring Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux closer in style to a Saint-Estèphe than a typical wine from their Moulis-en-Médoc appellation. The heart of the LDGP blend is from an old parcel of cabernet sauvignon near the Larrayaut river planted in the 1980s on gravel similar to that of Pauillac, mixed with clay. The parcel is extremely drought resistant and gives wines of length and elegance with very fine tannins, comparable to the wines of Cantenac. The remaining 6.5 hectares of LDGP vineyards not intended for the Grand Vin have been integrated into Château Anthonic, adding substantial quality and complexity.
Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux is now vinified and aged at Château Anthonic in a barrel room exclusively dedicated to its élevage. The Cordonnier family solely purchased the vineyards of Lestage-Darquier, not their buildings nor winemaking facility. This allowed them to not only completely change the management and destiny of the individual plots, but also to create an entirely new blend and identity for their new cuvée from the very best parts of the Grand Poujeaux terroir. Thus, from its birth in the 2022 vintage, Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux is an entirely different wine than previous vintages one might find on the market from the former owners, the Bernard family. The Cordonnier family is taking the property to the next level and uncovering the hidden potential of these Moulis-en-Médoc vineyards.
Jean-Baptiste Cordonnier is one of Bordeaux’s foremost advocates for organic viticulture, and a forerunner and current leader of the French agroforestry movement. He and his son Théophile are now applying the experience and knowledge in agroecology and agroforestry they have mastered at their nearby family estate, Château Anthonic (officially certified organic since the 2019 vintage), to their new property at Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux. The conversion at LDGP to organic viticulture and agroforestry began immediately with its purchase in 2022. This was aided by the exceptional quality of the terroir, combined with the existing trees and soil work carried out by the previous owners (the Bernard family, who had already ceased chemical treatments and were certified by Terra Vitis), as well as the density of vine plantation identical to that of Château Anthonic (7000 vines/ha). These undeniable assets gave the project a head start, allowing the Cordonniers to hit the ground running and attain the highest quality from their first vintage. They have systematically designed their new vineyard plantations so that there are trees planted in the middle and at the edges of the plots. As of 2022, they have planted more than four kilometers of hedges that crisscross their vineyards from Château Anthonic to Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux.
Plots are handpicked in small crates at their ideal ripeness, and each plot is vinified separately. Bunches are destemmed, crushed and fermented by parcel and variety. The fermentation lasts 10 days with 21 days of skin maceration. The juice is extracted from vat, and then the skins are pressed and divided into three categories and tasted. The final blend of 2023 contains 85% free run juice and 15% of the best press juice. The free run juice goes through malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks, while the press juice obtains malo in barrel.
60% of LDGP is aged in new 500L demi-muids of top quality French oak and 40% is aged in 750L TAVA terracotta amphorae. The objective of this atypical Bordeaux maturation is to express the personality of that year’s harvest, with the length of the élevage determined by the attributes of the vintage; the powerful 2022 was aged for 15 months. This vintage is a blend of 53% merlot and 47% cabernet sauvignon.
Lestage-Darquier Grand Poujeaux was conceived as a wine that can be enjoyed in its youth, yet is also imbued with the ability to age and improve gracefully in bottle for decades to come, as a top example of the special characteristics of the Grand Poujeaux plateau, with a limited production averaging just 14,000 bottles.