Unlike many wine-lovers, I came across Occidental before Kistler. I worked for a company that imported some of its early vintages – and they were like nothing I’d ever tasted. These translucent Pinot Noirs glimmered, but their pastel-pale shade was nothing but a nudge and wink at the Burgundies that inspired them. Aromatics leapt from the glass – floral and febrile, but it was the vivid, intense, crystalline purity of the palate that I found so beguiling. Seeing where these wines are made – on the brink of the Pacific, where ocean breezes lash at the vines, and thick fog grasps the dramatic, undulating landscape – only made them all the more enchanting. Even today, 18 years after Steve Kistler first put down vines here, the region is sparsely planted – with Occidental one of a handful of pioneers of the outer reaches of the Sonoma Coast. The area was long deemed too cold to ripen fruit, with dairy the main industry – and fields of grazing cattle and sheep are still interspersed with plots of vines. Occidental’s vineyards – now 85 acres in total – now neighbour those of Platt, Littorai and Joseph Phelps’s Quarter Moon site, sitting at 500 feet above sea level – a modest altitude when you consider some of Napa’s mountain districts have parcels above 2,000 feet. But it’s their proximity to the ocean (which is just five miles away) that makes the climate here so cool – and damp. Leaf-pulling and spraying are key to managing disease pressure – unfortunately making organic farming almost impossible. “We want the purity of fruit to shine,” Catherine (Cate) Kistler says. She joined her father, Steve, six years ago, working as his Assistant Winemaker – just one element that makes the venture a true family business. Not in the way that Walmart or Ford are a family business, but in the hand-to-mouth, everyone-mucks-in, this-is-both-their-livelihood-and-legacy kind of way. It’s a “tight little universe” where they work, live and farm, Cate explains. This is one reason that Steve stepped away from the iconic winery that he’d created in 1978 – Kistler had shifted and grown, becoming something larger than he’d ever anticipated, or necessarily wanted.  Kistler had humble beginnings – with Steve making the wines in what was essentially a wooden shack, and living upstairs. That building – up in the Mayacamas – was consumed by the fires in 2020, and today Kistler works with around 300 acres (including their own vines and those farmed by growers for them). The investment of Bill Price (a man whose first major move in the wine industry was buying, and later selling, Beringer) has added further gloss to a winery that has become one of California’s cult names. If that makes it sound like there’s been wholesale change, that’s far from the truth – a clear succession plan has ensured only the gentlest of evolutions at Kistler, and ensured the producer maintains its position at the top. Jason Kesner – who describes himself as a “vine and yeast shepherd” – is the man at the helm today. He joined the team in 2008 (aged 40), working alongside Steve for close to a decade before taking the reins.  Although born on the East Coast, Kesner grew up around wine. He moved out to California aged eight, where his mother had taken a job as Head Microbiologist at Robert Mondavi, and his soon-to-be stepfather worked as VP of Vineyard Operations – the smells and sounds of a working winery firmly familiar. Despite his early initiation to the industry, he studied cultural anthropology and left both the area and industry. He was eventually lured back, working first for Francis Ford Coppola (the man behind Inglenook’s revival), but in a non-wine role – managing his special projects. Via Coppola’s poker games, Kesner connected with Pat Kuleto and ended up planting vineyards for him, before finding himself at Hudson (his “graduate school for Chardonnay production”). This prestigious name features on bottles from the likes of Aubert, Kongsgaard, Cakebread, Failla and Ramey – and Kesner got to work with all of them, growing top-tier fruit for 34 clients, including Steve Kistler. And Steve was different. He was, Kesner says, “very, very focused”, “hyper-intelligent, borderline genius” and – along with his business partner, the late Mark Bixler – thought about things on a different level. When the duo started Kistler in the 1970s, working with a single clone and single sites, no one else was doing it – with his unparalleled energy and intent, Steve created something profound. Although Kesner had already worked closely with Steve at Hudson, it was only when he arrived at Kistler in 2008 that he realised how differently Steve operated. “I had jumped into a different timeline and a different pace,” Kesner tells me. “Steve and I had conversations that, quite literally, spanned years.” These conversations would be picked up each vintage, just a handful of sentences on a topic expressed until the next season. For Kesner, this long-term vision was what set Kistler apart: “It’s not about the people who are doing it at the moment. It’s about everything that’s come before and it’s about everything that will come after.” The Kistler evolution has been slow, but it has happened – past their phase of “embracing the cocaine ’90s” (“If you weren’t, you weren’t paying attention,” Kesner says), with a shift toward earlier picking, native ferments and reduction in new oak (from 50% down to around 38% across the range today) – but without sacrificing the seductive, silken style that defines their Chardonnay. “Our job is to polish the jewel,” Kesner says. “The diamond doesn’t need to be re-cut.” The vines are also gradually gaining in age (currently averaging a spritely 35 years), which is only improving the wines further. Kesner is continuing Steve’s work and the philosophy remains true to the original concept. “The best and highest use of a given site is when you're guiding it, not driving it,” he says, pointing to Mother Nature (rather than Bill Price) as the ultimate boss. He loathes the title “winemaker” – fully aware that it’s an entire team behind Kistler. “There are 56 people who are dedicated to the production of these wines. They’re out there pruning in January and then they’re going to be out there picking for this year in October. And it’s because of that really powerful group of people that we’re able to do what we do.” Meanwhile, out on the coast, Steve is continuing his own quest for terroir. Occidental, Cate tells me, is all about exploring “what this ridge means”. The yields at Occidental, overlooking the Pacific, are tiny, maxing out at around two tons/acre. The work is painstaking, with careful canopy management and spraying to avoid mildews, and steep slopes that need to be hand-hoed to manage the weeds. And, as at Kistler, the Pinot Noirs here are all made identically – so it is the site, rather than hand of the maker, that shines through. Be that though it may, it takes exceptional talent to make wines like this. “[Steve] is yet again 30 years ahead of everybody in California,” Kesner says. “It might take the American palate a while to catch up with them, but I firmly believe those will be recognised as some of the best Pinot Noirs in the world. Hands down.” Steve’s an elusive character – and seems happiest tucked away in his remote corner of the Sonoma Coast, away from the limelight. “He’s not a man of many words,” Kesner says, although suggests that working with Cate has drawn him out of his shell a little. Cate talks about him unsurprisingly lovingly, but doesn’t shy away from admitting there are challenges to the “weird and wonderful world” of family business. Harvard-educated, she’s quick-witted and sharp, and has clearly inherited her father’s passion for wine. Not only is he clearly deeply embedded in everything Occidental, but his interest goes beyond vine-growing, with what I suspect is an enviable collection of his own, from the alluring line-ups of Grand Cru Burgundy that I’ve glimpsed on Cate’s Instagram. It takes something rather extraordinary to be willing to give up your name, to start from scratch, all over again, with a new winery and new vineyards. But there’s a reason that his longtime vineyard manager (Ruben Molinar) and cellar master (Raymundo Abarca) left Kistler with Steve in 2017; and it’s a tribute to the man. Now Molinar and Abarca’s children are working alongside Steve’s – and the family is growing. But Cate and Steve don’t want to create Kistler 2.0. They’re developing another ranch, but they don’t want the project to become so big that they’re no longer doing most of the work themselves (“We’ve seen that movie,” Cate jests). The first vintage of Occidental was only 2011, but the wines are already making their mark. Steve’s legacy at Kistler lives on, safely being shepherded by Kesner and his team, but it’s also being re-born at Occidental, and set to be carried forward by Cate. “Wine is my dad’s world,” Cate tells me. And it’s quite a world – one that anyone tasting his wines is fortunate to be part of. Browse all Occidental and Kistler listings, or read more about California

Kistler’s Chardonnays are the stuff of legend – but now Steve Kistler has a new project, Occidental, crafting Pinot Noir on the outer reaches of the Sonoma Coast. Sophie Thorpe explores the winemaker’s legacy and these two very special estates

Kistler Chardonnay is the stuff of legend – but now Steve has a new project, Occidental. We explore his legacy and the two special Sonoma wine estates today

Kistler & Occidental – site expression in Sonoma

In pursuit of Sonoma’s true identity: Kistler and Occidental

The Vauthier family is among Saint-Emilion’s most influential. The custodians of Ch. Ausone, they have been knocking about this medieval village since the 17th century, with the young team running Ausone today the 11th generation to make wine there. But the Vauthiers’ presence in Saint-Emilion spreads far beyond Ch. Ausone. They have also been in charge of neighbouring estate Ch. Moulin Saint-Georges since 1921, Ch. de Fonbel since 1971 and more recently Ch. Simard and Ch. Haut-Simard (since 2008). Their latest acquisition (again in Saint-Emilion) is the famed four-hectare site of Ch. la Clotte – another jewel in an impressive line-up of estates. Edouard Vauthier, the latest to join the business full-time (in 2019), likes to classify their properties using (heaven forbid) the Burgundy hierarchy. “If Ch. Ausone is the Grand Cru,” he says, “then La Clotte and Moulin Saint-Georges, still on the limestone plateau, are the Premier Cru equivalent. Ch. de Fonbel and the Simard estates are not on limestone but on sandier, clay soils, and therefore represent the village wines.” Tasting through the wines of all six estates, there is an undeniable similarity in style running through them. They all have such a refined tannic texture and purity of fruit, even in the least expensive bottlings of Ch. Simard and Fonbel. Edouard believes this is very much down to the family’s personal taste when it comes to ripeness levels, and their methods of extraction and maceration at fermentation. But it is not only this. When Alain Vauthier (Edouard’s father) took over the estates in 1999, he had huge ambitions for his “village” wines, Fonbel and Simard. “My father wanted to apply the same meticulous attention to detail in all his wines, whatever the family accountant might think,” he chuckles. Given the price of Simard on release is less than £10 a bottle, it might not make much financial sense to give it the same attention as Ausone, but they do – making these wines outstanding value. At this price, the wines are ideal for restaurants, with much of the stock held back specifically for them.  The Vauthier family’s eye for detail, even in these inexpensive wines, has also been to Ausone’s benefit. Simard, Fonbel and even Moulin Saint-Georges have all been a hotbed of experiments over the last two decades and have really helped, Edouard believes, enhance the quality at Ausone.   As trends changed in the region, Ausone, admits Edouard, adapted their extraction methods, notably from 2006 onwards. They also reduced the toasting of the barrels from 2011, which they felt was hiding some of the fruit, and you can taste the change in the oak regime comparing the wines over this period. Ausone is aged in 100% new oak, even today, but the change in toasting, he feels – and I agree, has greatly improved the wine. Tasting the older vintages today, while the oak is more present, the wines have not lost their unique identity – the sinewy yet refined tannins and amazing freshness are still very present, and the wines have matured beautifully. Despite Ausone’s premiership at this time, Edouard’s father Alain loved to experiment. Edouard jokes that his father was a little too obsessed with machinery. From about 2008 onwards he was buying up all sorts of state-of-the-art equipment, predominantly to try and raise the quality of their other estates. Being able to constantly compare these wines against Ausone was a healthy barometer. While many of these investments didn’t pay off, his father’s open-mindedness led to a magnificent discovery which was to have a huge influence on the Vauthier recipe and Saint-Emilion more widely today. He was the first vigneron in the world to trial the density sorting bath.  “It’s a very simple machine, perhaps that’s why we like it,” Edouard laughs. “If the machinery becomes complicated, we don’t understand anything.” The original design was used in pea production and was then modified to work for grapes. As the berries arrive at the winery, they are submerged, for less than a second, in a bath made up of a water and sugar solution. “It is a simple calculation,” says Edouard. “The density level can be adjusted so that any grape not sufficiently dense (and therefore concentrated) is disposed of. It brings 100% reliability to the sorting.” For the family, when they switched to using the machine, there was a clear distinction when it came to fruit purity in the wine.  But Edouard believes the density sorting machine is not only for sorting the grapes. Because the berries are submersed in water prior to fermentation, it cleans the berries. “All the dirt, all the dust, all the small particles are washed off. Going into the fermentation process you have a very clean tank and it results in a very clean fermentation. There are no impurities.”  As with all their experiments, the density bath was first tested at Ch. Simard in 2011. So happy with the initial results, they introduced it to Moulin Saint-Georges in 2012. By 2013 all three cellars and all six wines were equipped with the machine. Every grape of Ch. Ausone since 2013 has undergone density sorting. Tasting the wines from 2013 through to 2020, they have only become more ethereal. The purity of fruit is undeniable. This is not only down to the density bath, but with such a clean fermentation and a knowingness of the concentration levels of the berries, the winemaking team, Edouard explains, didn’t need to overly extract to get concentration or flavour into the wine. “We were ahead of the game,” he says, “and it was fortunate my father was friends with the inventor. We were one of the first using it.” Today Edouard estimates that at least 25% of Saint-Emilion properties use the method. Despite the advancements in technology, the Vauthier family knows that terroir remains the trump card in Saint-Emilion. Despite Alain’s meticulous attention to detail and however perfectly made the wines are, Simard or Fonbel will never give you the complexity you find in the berries of Ausone. It is the one part of the recipe that cannot be changed.  Saint-Emilion is a variable appellation, but its uniqueness lies in the presence of limestone. It is this that gives the wines low pH and naturally high acidity resulting in a natural freshness and energy in the wine. The grapes of Simard and Fonbel are grown on more fertile soils, which means the yields are naturally higher and therefore less complex. It also means more work needs to be done to manage mildew and disease.  “It’s harder to make wine here,” says Edouard. “Ausone, we are lucky, it is in the perfect place. Although every inch is manicured, it doesn’t take that much work to maintain the quality.” Back in 2008, the Vauthiers did extensive research on the availability of water across their Saint-Emilion properties. It turns out Ausone, even in the driest years, can still access enough moisture through the entire year, necessary for the vines to avoid water stress, thanks to its limestone soils. It is a special site.   The biggest surprise for Edouard when understanding his family’s vineyards was the natural difference in the quality of berries from site to site. “It is something that cannot be explained,” he says, “other than terroir. If you taste the grapes from each of our properties, all at the same period, at the same level of ripeness. Moulin Saint-Georges and La Clotte will have maybe three to four times more flavours and aromas than Simard and Fonbel and at Ausone it is 10 times more. I can’t tell you why, but it is true.” It is fascinating to think that despite all the improvements, Edouard believes it’s difficult to produce an unremarkable wine at Ausone. No doubt it is the reason it has been a prime viticultural site for over 2,000 years. Even back in the day, using basic traditional methods, the results still proved to be incredible. “When you taste old Ausone,” says Edouard, “it is light, aérien, everything is super smooth, delicate and balanced. While we can play with extraction and oak, in the bottle, we always have an Ausone typicity in the end.” His family’s job, he believes, is simply make sure nothing goes wrong.  Despite Edouard’s humble assertions, there is no doubt that the wines today are spectacular, the younger vintages only becoming more ethereal, and more refined. There are few wines, if any, that perfectly embody the magic of Cabernet Franc on limestone, a perfect base recipe from Mother Nature’s hand – but with the Vauthiers in charge, Ausone is in good hands.   Explore all current Ausone listings or read more Editorial

We recently hosted an event with Ch. Ausone in London, tasting nine vintages of the wine, as well as a flight from the Vauthier family’s other estates. We caught up with Edouard Vauthier to discuss what makes the property unique – and where the magic lies in this idiosyncratic Bordeaux appellation

Edouard Vauthier tells us what makes Chateau Ausone so special and why terroir is everything in Saint-Emilion.

Finding the perfect recipe at Chateau Ausone

Ch. Ausone: the Vauthier vision

Alsace – Olivier Humbrecht Food and wine are taken very seriously indeed in Alsace and Olivier has provided a wealth of options to consider. Worth noting, Alsace has more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in France. Top recommendations for wine lists at reasonable prices in the region are Tavernes lsacienne in Ingersheim and Restaurant de la Gare in Guewenheim. The best for food /wine list combo would be Villa Lalique in Wingen sur Moder, Chambard in Kayserberg. Table du Gourmet (1 Michelin Star) in Riquewihr and Auberge Bouc Bleu in Beblenheim. For a special occasion, don’t miss Aub de l’Ill (€€€) in Illhausern, which is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant. It was in fact a 3 Michelin Star restaurant up until recently but for Olivier it still is very much a 3 Star and worth the visit. 
Burgundy - Christophe Roumier "If you consider Burgundy to be larger than only the Cote de Beaune and Cote de Nuits, then my favourite restaurant is certainly Aux Terrasses in Tournus, which although only one Michelin Star, has a lovely creative cuisine full of energy and based mainly around local produce. The wine list is just perfect, although, like many places, it's full of young vintages. I like this place a lot! Closer to Beaune, one of my favourite restaurants is Hostellerie de Levernois for the high level of its cuisine and its very accomplished wine list. But here the place is a little more fancy." Brunello di Montalcino – Gianlorenzo Neri The most authentic place in Montalcino area is Trattoria Il Pozzo or Il Leccio in Sant'Angelo in Colle (a village in south area of Montalcino). Inside Montalcino village do not miss Il Giglio, Alle Logge di Piazza, and Drogheria Franci. For special fine dining you must try Osticcio. The best wine lists in town are at Il Giglio (you can find very old and rare vintages of Brunello from great wineries) as well as Drogheria Franci (same ownership of Enoteca La Fortezza who have an extensive wine list to choose from). Do not miss "Pinci" with meat sauce or pecorino cheese and pepper (in italian "cacio e pepe"), it is the typical pasta of the area, or "Peposo" which is a braised beef meat cooked in
a Brunello sauce. Santa Barbara – Matt Dees (Jonata & The Hilt) For dinner I would recommend the El Encanto restaurant which has beautiful sweeping views across Santa Barbara city. The food is awesome too. Don’t forget to stop off at the Mercado Ice Cream Parlour too. This place has got to be making some of the best ice cream in California. The Lark is pretty awesome. My personal favourite is Ca’Dario, a sort of no thrills Italian restaurant - the food is really authentic. We also have some of the best Mexican food being made in the US. These restaurants really are some of the jewels of the city. I love El Bagio
but there are loads of great ones to choose from! 
Chablis – Olivier Bailly – Domaine Billaud Simon Too few people make the one hour drive from the Cote d’Or to Chablis; the region is an overlooked culinary hot spot that offers exceptional value compared to the Cote d’Or. Olivier Bailly’s favourite restaurant in Chablis is Au Fil du Zinc for "the precision" of the Japanese Chef. According to Olivier, "he produces very good French cooking with a Japanese influence". Le Syracuse is another restaurant he recommends for the quality-to-price
ratio: "it is excellent!" 
Burgundy - Veronique Drouhin Veronique Drouhin also recommends the Bistrot du Bord de L'Eau in the commune of Livernois (just outside of Beaune). She describes it as “delicious, fairly priced and a lovely location both indoors and outdoors if the weather suits". Another recommendation is the L'Hermitage de Corton, just outside of Beaune, on the way to Aloxe Corton. Again it offers "delicious food at a good price in a beautiful setting... plus
the owners are delightful". If you find yourself in the centre of Beaune, Drouhin recommends Le Carmin, “a one Michelin star restaurant, worthy of the star”. For 'bar and tapas' style evening with friends, her pick is the gastro-bar Maison du Colombier. Another recommendation in Beaune is Le Bistrot des Cocottes: “nice, fun, very good”.

For any true epicurean, a list of top restaurants requires serious deliberation. We asked some of our favourite winemakers from around the world to give their recommendations, including Olivier Humbrecht, Christophe Roumier, Gianlorenzo Neri and more…

Winemakers Olivier Humbrecht, Christophe Roumier, Gianlorenzo Neri and more name their top restaurants

Where winemakers eat, part one

Where winemakers eat: Part one

Of course, the reputation and quality of the wines from this estate long predate the modern-day critics. Prior to the 1855 classification, Château La Mission Haut-Brion was one of the most expensive wines in Bordeaux, second only to its historic neighbour Château Haut-Brion. The two properties are both owned by the Dillon family (Domaine Clarence Dillon) who bought Château Haut-Brion in 1935 and purchased Château La Mission Haut-Brion 48 years later, in 1983. We caught up with Deputy Managing Director Jean-Philippe Delmas and Sales Director Guillaume-Alexandre Marx to find out what makes this Château so special. 
In the vineyard Since taking over the property in 1983 the Dillon family undertook a major effort to upgrade the estate. They initially focused on the vineyards. Substantial investments were made to replant vines on some of the finest gravel soil in Bordeaux. 
Over the years, each and every plot of La Mission Haut-Brion has been replanted with the grape varietal best suited to it. These vines are now an average of 30 years old. The high vine density (10,000 vines per hectare) is conducive to intense wines whose hallmark is their unique charm. Starting with the 1991 vintage, a second red wine was created at La Mission: La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion.  The vines that originally produced the second wine starting in 1991 have since aged, and now
produce a wine of exceptional quality. However, another factor is also of great importance. In 2006, the vineyard of Château La Tour Haut-Brion, another estate belonging to Domaine Clarence Dillon, was integrated into that of La Mission Haut-Brion. Starting with this same vintage, all the grapes from La Tour Haut-Brion’s vineyard, a Classified Growth of Graves in
1953, went into La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion, making the second wine of La Mission a truly fine wine. The Pessac-Leognan terroir
 Wines from the Pessac Leognan have a unique, distinct fired earth, tobacco, spice note that are not found elsewhere on the Left Bank giving the wines an added aromatic complexity. Haut-Brion stands for hillock and the vineyards of both Haut-Brion and Mission Haut-Brion are planted on these raised hillocks with distinct gunzian gravel soils giving the wines good drainage and exposition, as well as retaining the typicity of the aromatic complexity consistent with the Pessac-Leognan region.  The other important elements of Château La Mission Haut-Brion is that they are the first winery to harvest in Bordeaux, picking their Merlot before anyone else in Bordeaux due to the specific climate and exposition at the property.  They typically start to pick the Merlot at the end of August / early September, benefiting from the warmer summer months enabling veraison earlier and avoiding the risk of wetter weather in the latter part of September. Despite the vineyards neighbouring Château Haut-Brion there are distinct differences between the styles of Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. First the vine density and the positioning of the vines in La Mission Haut-Brion are very different with the vines planted at a density of 10,000 vines per hectare compared to Haut-Brion at 8,000.  The vines at La Mission Haut-Brion are positioned from North to South and therefore the sun exposure is felt much more, heightening the sun’s effect on the wine. La Mission Haut-Brion is therefore more concentrated, has more intensity of flavour and typically riper fruit character compared with Haut-Brion. Haut-Brion is more gentler, more refined style providing potentially greater elegance, and potentially more earthy, savoury terroir
character rather than fruit intensity. Tasting the two together they are so different
and are wonderful contrasts in style despite them being neighbouring vineyards
made by the same team.  La Mission Haut-Brion is also half the size of Haut-Brion in terms of vineyards and production levels. Haut-Brion has 50 hectares under vine and typically produces 100,000 bottles each year. La Mission Haut-Brion has just 25 hectares under vine and produces 50,000 bottles each year. The production on both is a lot smaller compared to the other First Growths of Château Margaux, Lafite, Latour and Mouton Rothschild. In the winery 
A new, ultra-modern vat house was installed, opened to mark the 1987 vintage, followed
by significant renovations to the château, chapel and cellars. In 1996, a new bottling chain was introduced and a new tasting room was built, christened the Chapter Room, in honour of the Lazarists.  In 2007, new cellars were built, plus a tasting room sculpted by the best Italian woodworkers, which now features original engravings by Albrecht Dürer, plus a bottling centre and an improved storage area. However, the jewel in the crown of this major renovation project is a vibrant new tribute to
the Lazarist brothers. Returning to the Frontenac quarries – which in the 18th century supplied the stone for the most beautiful monuments in Bordeaux – the estate chose this material to build the Grand Chai, described as a “modern cathedral to wine".  
The consistency at La Mission Haut-Brion Arguably there is more consistency in quality throughout the vintages in wines from Pessac Leognan, since Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc play distinctive rolls in the region allowing for the assemblage to vary depending on which of the varieties have performed the best in each vintage. In Pauillac for example they are much more reliant on the performance of their Cabernet Sauvignon which makes up typically over 80% of the blend.  The winemaking team is exactly the same at both Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut Brion. The winemaking team at Haut-Brion has in fact been within the same family for three generations of the Delmas family going back to1923. Since 1988 the same team of three– Jean-Philippe Delmas, Jean-Philippe Masclef (Technical Director) and Pascal Baratié (Vineyard Manager) have been making the wines at both properties providing a very consistent style across both
Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion.  Bordeaux today With the global warming effect in the last twenty years tannins are riper and the quantity is
higher. This means the team have to pay more attention on the extraction process than before. They have tried to  maintain the balance and the freshness. The tendency being to shorten the length of maceration. Thanks to the level of ripeness the wines according to Jean-Philippe can drink sooner than before without altering the ageing potential. In fact, the window of accessibility is wider than ever before. The second wine made at Château La Mission Haut-Brion is the highly regarded La Chapelle la Mission Haut-Brion. The grapes are treated exactly the same whether they go into the first or second wine. Each year, the 27 individual parcels at Mission Haut-Brion are vinified separately. The wines are then tasted blind by the team and it is at this point the wines are separated into the Grand Vin and the second wine. All the wines are then typically aged
for 15 to 18 months in barrels with a lower proportion of new oak used in the second wines. The greatest vintages of La Mission Haut-Brion are the ’75 ’98, ’90 and 2000. Guillaume states “They are some of the finest wines I have ever tasted and show the quality of the property at
its best. For me they are the epitome of the La Mission Haut-Brion style. The 1998 La Mission Haut-Brion is drinking beautifully right now.”  Explore all current Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion listings or browse more Editorial 

Ch. La Mission Haut-Brion ranks among Bordeaux’s greatest estates and is often called the King of the Left Bank. Historically, it earned numerous 100-point scores from Robert Parker, making it one of Bordeaux’s most frequently “perfect-scored” châteaux.

Ch. La Mission Haut Brion is one of the greatest Bordeaux wine estates. We explore the wine that has received the most Robert Parker 100-point scores 

Guide to Bordeaux's Ch. La Mission Haut-Brion

Your guide to Château La Mission Haut-Brion

While the 100-point-scoring Pomerol Ch. L’Eglise-Clinet is the jewel in the Durantou crown, the family works with three other estates – Les Cruzelles, Saintayme and Montlandrie, in the Côtes de Castillon. The family bought the 28 hectares of this latter property in 2009. It perches at 86 metres’ altitude (a relatively lofty height for this part of the world), on the same limestone terrace as the heart of Saint-Emilion, which re-emerges here, next to the town of Castillon-la-Bataille. And it’s this limestone which defines the site – bringing incredible freshness to the wines it produces. The Castillon property has been totally replanted, and not just to vines, but with olives, oak trees and truffles, as well as vines, and space for beehives too. They’ve got a well and solar panels on the winery, meaning they are totally off-grid and self-sufficient – Noëmie Durantou Reilhac (who took over after her father Denis passed away) tells us how her father used to joke that if anything happened, Montlandrie is where they would go – their arc for the apocalypse. As it has been planted entirely by the Durantous, the vine spacing is very specific – 6,172 vines per hectare, a number based on the golden ratio, with vines planted 1.62 x 1m, as dreamt up by the late Denis. The vineyards are also still babies – with an average age of just 10 years, and the youngest fledgling vines planted this year, all with massal selections from Eglise-Clinet. This wild and spacious property is a total contrast to Eglise-Clinet, which has been in the Durantou family since the 18th century. Their Pomerol estate takes its name from the church that was once nearby, the cemetery of which has survived (with a new church built in the heart of the village, visible across the brow of the hill). The vineyards were leased for many years, and it was only under Denis Durantou that the family reclaimed them, in 1982. The oldest vineyard plots date back to 1905 – century-old field blends that even have a handful of Malbec vines scattered in amongst them. They have a mere 4.5 hectares, divided in parcels around the château, all on soils that are a combination of the region’s famous blue clay and ferruginous sandstone. Here in the heart of Pomerol, there’s no space for an olive grove or other crops – the tiny plots are far too precious for such folly. Tasting the wine from these two addresses in two utterly different vintages – 2013 and 2018 – shines a light on the sites, the style and the winemaking. The 2013 vintage is not fashionable among collectors – the rainy year led to immense disease pressure and made it challenging to ripen fruit. But, as Durantou Reilhac told us, what you do with the fruit you pick is much more important than the vintage itself. A cooler, off-vintage, the 2013s are rarely wines that earn high scores (or demand), yet these are the years that are most revealing, and often insider choices. By contrast, 2018 is remembered as a warm year – the first of the trilogy of excellent vintages (along with 2019 and ’20). The reality, however, was an incredibly wet start to the season, with rain throughout May and June, the weather only becoming hot and dry from mid-July – and saving the season. The resulting wines are blockbusters – bold, rich and ripe, and some that are perhaps overly so. The 2013s both showed a more herbaceous freshness, with redder fruit, slightly more austere tannins and lighter body – yet both Montlandrie and Eglise-Clinet were moreish. They are wines that I would consider the perfect “luncheon Claret”, with just a hint of savoury leather and sousbois creeping into their profile, both gasping for food. Both really benefited from additional air, relaxing their structure a little and making them more approachable. Unsurprisingly, the 2018s were different beasts. “The more I taste [the 2018 vintage], the more I love it,” Durantou Reilhac said. And with these wines, it was easy to see why. Especially for Montlandrie, whose vines were that much older by this vintage, the wine showed a vibrancy and dark perfume that Durantou Reilhac described beautifully as “baroque”. The 2018 Eglise-Clinet effortlessly stole the show at the tasting, a wine that is yet to reveal itself fully, but already offers so much. The wine is dense, compact, with an angularity to the frame around tightly packed, pure and seamless fruit, gradually revealing delicate florals. “You can feel the potential of full bloom,” Durantou Reilhac said, comparing the wine to a flower just starting to unfurl its petals.  For Durantou Reilhac, the key to producing wines like this is the harvest date. “If you look and you wait, you don’t control anything anymore,” she explains – and this was a particular danger in 2013, with some waiting too long. Ultimately, the goal is to craft wines that echo the perfect peach, plucked fresh from the tree – juicy and sweet, yet vibrant and mouth-watering – a pure expression of the very freshest fruit. To do that, they opt for gentle extraction, lower fermentation temperatures and shorter maceration times, as well as careful use of oak – with the aim “to enhance in a tactile way”, rather than add aromatics. For the 2018s, for example, one might assume they would have used a higher portion of new oak, with the concentrated fruit able to handle more – but in fact they used less. “The structure was already so powerful,” Durantou Reilhac tells us, and they didn’t want to “overbuild” the wine with more, “It would have crashed against the fruit.” New oak can help bring acidity and freshness, while one or two-year-old oak can “tire” the wine, she finds. The key, however, is to find the balance between the acidity and tannin: “A great wine makes you accept its acidity, thanks to its tannins,” she explains. It's unfair in many ways to put the much more modest Montlandrie alongside Eglise-Clinet, but the wines are so different, and Montlandrie already shows such potential – only reinforced by tasting recent vintages en primeur (with the 2022 a particular highlight of the vintage). Montlandrie offers a much more linear, direct and fresh style – much closer, unsurprisingly given its limestone, to Saint-Emilion than Pomerol. Eglise-Clinet, however, is plusher, denser, yet not at all over the top – managing to be both immensely concentrated and structured, yet elegant and contained. They are totally different sites, two totally different expressions of the Durantou style – but it’s perhaps the restraint, freshness and purity of fruit that connects the two. The thread of perfume and precision runs throughout, wines that – even in vintages as big and bold as 2018 – you simply want to drink. Browse all Eglise-Clinet and Montlandrie listings, or read more about Bordeaux

The Durantou family needs little introduction – creating some of the Right Bank’s finest wines, including Ch. l’Eglise-Clinet. Noëmie Durantou Reilhac – who is now at the helm of the family’s estates – dropped by our office to taste two contrasting vintages from two of the family’s properties

Tasting two contrasting vintages of Ch. l’Eglise-Clinet and Ch. Montlandrie with Noëmie Durantou Reilhac – the woman at the helm of the Durantou estates today

Tasting Montlandrie and Eglise-Clinet

Tasting with Noëmie Durantou Reilhac: Montlandrie and Eglise-Clinet

Many factors come into play when tasting Chateau Musar vintages. Was it a warmer Cabernet year (1999, 2000, 2005)? Was it cooler, making Cinsault more influential in the blend as in 1998? Or was it a Carignan year like 2003? Will grape prominence be less relevant than the dodging of bullets across the Beka’a in a vintage we’re lucky to see the appearance of at all?  The tasting notes that follow shine a light on the vintage, the weather conditions, and the family events that helped shape the wines. There is also an insight into the mindset of the winemaker, Serge Hochar, as he became less influenced by his background in Bordeaux and increasingly confident in the wines emerging from his own terroir in Lebanon. Hochar family wines live for a long time and their flavours linger in the mouth and memory long after the bottle is drained. Some of these wines have been tasted à point, at the peak of perfection, but many have yet to reach this moment, and they are judged on their potential. Even more fascinating, perhaps, are the notes on wines that are perhaps just past their prime, but still delivering fascinating nuances that astound the taster – some of these wines elicit the most evocative tasting notes of all. For the Hochar family, a new wine, however shapely or pleasing, is always pregnant with promise for the future. Many of the notes below show the best that the wines can be – but they also underline the fact that for each taster Musar’s most sublime moment will be different. Although the Hochar family does not believe in the concept of defining a wine with numbers, ratings have been included to give some guidance.  Jancis Robinson MW, Bartholomew Broadbent and Steven Spurrier award marks out of 20 for each wine. Michael Broadbent prefers a five-star scoring system. All notes were taken in 2018/19 with the exception of Michael Broadbent’s. Chateau Musar: the reds One-third of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan, aged for a year in French Nevers oak. 2013 Chateau Musar  "Dense, deep red, still hints of purple at the core and little age on the rim. Marvellously warm Mediterranean fruits on the nose, autumnal in style but youthful in their rich, robust, vigorous presence. The essence of Lebanon in a glass, rich with spice and cooling breezes, the dry, herby fruit flows with energy over the palate before giving way to a finish that confirms the structure, fruit and tannins blending exuberantly with intriguing hints of much more to come in the next decade." Steven Spurrier, Score: 18/20, Drink: 2020-2040  2009 Chateau Musar  "Mid-crimson. Light, sweet start. For the moment it’s a little simple. Bright, ripe red fruit. Slightly burnt edge. Lots of tannins. Quite dry and youthful on the finish. Much longer bottle age needed. By far the most youthful wine in this vertical tasting." Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 17+++/20, Drink: 2028-2050  "Deep ruby colour but light translucent rim. More primary sweet baked red fruit notes and a lovely bloody, cured meat Rhone character. This is a complex nose – sweet candied blackberry, raspberry, cardamom, tobacco – a very pure nose.  Dense tannins still not fully integrated but will get there and very well balanced with a vibrant line of acidity running through the palate. A real Italian flair to the wine but the tannins are so silky, beautifully handled. Still plenty of life in this wine." FINE+RARE 2008 Chateau Musar  "Heady and beguiling with a gamey note on the nose. Very sweet and young; well balanced on the palate. No hurry at all to drink this youthful ferment. Very tight, dry wine that is so much younger than any other vintage tasted. So much more youthful than a Bordeaux 2008!" Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 17.5+++/20, Drink: 2025-2045 "After blending, [Head Winemaker] Tarek [Sakr] was raving about this vintage. I asked him to add 0.5% of any wine he liked and we’d taste it again in two weeks. An act of faith or la folie? We tasted it again. He raved again; the wine had changed colour and bouquet." Serge Hochar "Dark, blood red. Really powerful nose with tonnes of young, juicy blue and red fruit. Behind this, layers of dried fruit emerge (prunes and raisins) and tobacco, generally a much darker and more brooding profile than the initially youthful nose suggested. Leather and smoked meat, as well as mineral graphite, but also fresh mint and liquorice. Complex and ever-changing in the glass that invites you to keep going back and discovering more. Again, fantastic acidity, plus velvety tannins." FINE+RARE 2003 Chateau Musar  "Mid-garnet. Quite a bit deeper and younger-looking than even the 2001. A little marine influence (oyster shells?) on the somewhat reticent nose. Rather different from many of these Musars. Sweet start and very vigorous and fun. If I had not tasted vintages back to 1961, I might have taken this for a fully mature wine. It already gives masses of pleasure with some milk-chocolate notes and quite a bit of light dry tannin on the end. Excellent drive. Long and dramatically big, but with good freshness on the finish." Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 18.5/20, Drink: 2016-2035 "A vintage with high alcohol and acidity. Rainiest winter in 15 years, then not a drop of rain from April throughout a hot, sunny summer. Heatwave during flowering reduced the harvest by 30%." Tarek Sakr, Head Winemaker "Darker than more recent vintages, gun smoke, spice and hints of leather. Rich darker fruit, riper with dense, sweet mid-palate. Balanced though, with Cinsault contributing acid and vibrancy that is often absent in 2003s. Fruit profile is richer and darker and tannins riper and juicy, perhaps not as refined as the excellent 2008, but still with Musar DNA. Smoked meat and charcoal. Delicacy throughout. Fascinating and delicious." FINE+RARE
 2000 Chateau Musar  "Reasonably mature. Brick-red rim, autumnal faded red bowl. Mouthwatering acidity on the nose that can be smelt a foot away. Lovely aromas of damp autumn forests, decaying leaves and wood combine with a slightly chocolatey sweetness. A little spirit developed over the course of the evening: almost a Drambuie or Grand Marnier character. Slightly sweet on the palate with very long, classic autumnal Musar notes, soft, mature and Old World, braced by that lovely acidity. Still full flavoured and crisp on its long, lingering aftertaste, finishing with notes of liquorice and sherbet." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 18/20   "A Cabernet Sauvignon year. One of my clients called it 'a lioness' of a wine." Serge Hochar "Bright ruby red with the start of some brick around the edges. Sweet fruit, baked strawberries, rosewater and pomegranate. Peppery spice. Some leather and petrichor. With more air, burning embers and deep, meaty fruit and spice. Lovely sweet tannins on entry. Elegant and fresh, but with an enveloping warmth and caressing softness, though it remains both light and structured thanks to the depth of flavour and superb acidity." FINE+RARE  1998 Chateau Musar  "Pale, jewel-bright garnet. Light, spicy, particularly well-integrated nose, already well developed. A sweet start on the palate; the opposite of heavy; a really lovely wine: fresh, sweet, with some very slight mintiness and a dry finish. Very long, and nicely mature: seems just right now. It will go beautifully with food. One of my favourite wines in this collection. Is it the Cinsault I like so much?" Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 18.5/20, Drink: 2012-2030 "Tarek said: 'Let’s bottle at the end of the second year. Let’s try!' We did 20,000 bottles like this, then the rest a year later, as usual. We tasted the wines four years later. Something was missing in the earlier-bottled wines. They had an obvious Chateau Musar character but were not necessarily better. Identity is permanently important. We went back to the original formula." Serge Hochar "Cool year, Cinsault dominated. Cold and rainy until June, with a sunny, dry summer. Harvest began on 9th September." Tarek Sakr, Head Winemaker  "Similar in style to the 1997 but with more fruit concentration, the aromas more earthy and
dried leather, but the lifted perfumed floral tone still dominates on the nose: dried roses, sweet licorice, candied cinnamon – lovely additional set of oak flavours that add aromatic complexity. Lovely texture – tannins are seamless – silky and long – provide structure but are sweet and resolved, backed by vibrant acidity keeping the wine fresh. Fruit is plump, rich, ripe, very much on the red fruit spectrum – raspberry, red cherry. Great acidity. Light fresh tobacco and light leather notes coming through on the finish. Great integration and drinking very well now. Difficult to pick between the '97 and '98 – the '97 is more ethereal – it tastes like quality aged Burgundy! '98 is plusher and more concentrated but less ethereal." FINE+RARE
 1997 Chateau Musar  "Very light in colour with maturity on the rim: salmon ruby. Surprisingly intense and concentrated nose with strong ash and autumnal smells; great acidity, damp leaves and old bonfires. On the palate, very sweet fruit and a long finish that goes through several evolutions (one developing old pomegranate flavours) in the longest aftertaste of any Musar. Full mouthfeel defies the lightness of the wine. Almost chewy in texture. Intense volatile acidity." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 18/20  "We had two harvests – before and after a week of heavy rain – and made a big, big wine. Two years after bottling it changed direction and began to create heavy sediments. It was the biggest surprise in my life. This wine was behaving like a human going through an adolescent crisis. Which way is it heading now? The only thing I know is that I trust my wines. It is already an interesting wine, and starting to taste beautiful." Serge Hochar "Translucent Pinor Noir-esque colour with tremendous clean aromatics – lifted floral notes,
fresh aniseed, scented aromatic tea leaf, red cherry, strawberry, pomegranate, so perfumed. Seamless tannins, silky soft but there is a delicate framework and the fruit concentration provides lovely depth. Fruit remains very fleshy. Very clean considering the age, and lovely refreshing, vibrant acidity, remarkably stable at 24 years of age. Lovely, ethereal quality to this wine, reminds me of a great aged Burgundy with the acid and florality!" FINE+RARE 1979 Chateau Musar  "…misleadingly pale, fully mature; nose like squashed strawberries; sweet, long, delicious." Michael Broadbent "Vibrant red with a hint of mahogany but still red on the rim. Astoundingly young and vigorous with warm red summer fruits and a definite hint of roses on the nose; has the feel of a wine at least 20 years its junior. The sweetness of fruit continues on the palate with a backbone of tannin to firm it up – without losing the old-fashioned ‘burgundian’ richness and just the right level of acidity to refresh the palate for another glass. This must always have been an exceptional wine, as it remains today." Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 18.5/20 1974 Chateau Musar  "Good depth but still light, with a mature-looking, orangey rim. Very vibrant, sweet-fruited nose, alive and drawing attention to itself. Very old, elegant fruit on the palate, with a touch of cheese rind. Extraordinary texture: velvety and syrupy at the same time; deep, with high acidity and a very long finish. Biscuity flavours (‘Playbox’ biscuits: if you are English and of a certain age, you’ll remember licking the sugary coat off those). Although past its prime, it is fascinating, like an old man with many stories to tell. You can imagine the wartime conditions through which this wine has aged, enduring much and remaining strong, until now as it begins to lose its way." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 19/20 "My ’74 I wasn’t happy with. But it developed! In 2000 I tasted it again. Now I think it is nearly ready to drink." Serge Hochar 1970 Chateau Musar  "In 1983, richly coloured; pine needles and vanilla; soft, velvety, well-balanced, yet powerful and plump like Château Petrus. Labelled ‘Réserve Rouge. Grand Cru’, still deep and rich, complete." Michael Broadbent, Score: five stars  "Dark, shaded ruby; just the sort of colour I would expect from a 1970 red Bordeaux. Light, very Cabernet nose. If I were given this blind I would be tempted to head straight for Bordeaux, though it would have to be a comely château such as Palmer perhaps, and a fairly ripe vintage. Perhaps 1961? But then there is probably more sweetness and a bit more exoticism than one would find in a Bordeaux of this evident age... Mouth-filling and again that note of violets, candied this time. A little dusting of tannins on the end. Lovely wine." Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 18/20, Drink: 1985-2022 1964 Chateau Musar  "Mature rim but not for its age: still tons of vibrant life in its red colour. Very little sign of ageing. Nose is very big, more like a mature Châteauneuf-du-Pape or other big, structured Rhône wine. Very concentrated and deep with autumnal bonfire ash. Spectacularly good, huge on the palate: damp decaying leaves; great acidity; volatility balanced by brown sugar flavours; delicious, sweet, long on the finish. Hardly any age. A great classic wine." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 20/20 "I had been in Bordeaux. I was 25. I prefer not to qualify the attitude of the French towards me, but no-one hurt me: they respected my oenological degree. However, I never took them a wine of my own. I was pretentious, my way! Was it as a reaction to this? I don’t know, but 1964 was my wild wine." Serge Hochar 1961 Chateau Musar  
"Slightly sludgy rust colour. Sweet, rich and thoroughly exotic. Old leather handbags? With some biscuit slurry (dunked, not-too-gingery ginger nuts?). Ethereal and lifted. Beautiful sweetness as it hits the palate then real freshness and super-clean, thoroughly mature aromas. Gloriously mature but not at all old. Does taste like a wine from a bygone age… Long and rich on the finish. Amazing to think that Cinsault can last this long. No variety imprints itself. Just a little chewiness on the end suggests a solid accompaniment would be wise." Jancis Robinson MW, Score: 18.5/20,  Drink: 1980-2028  1960 Chateau Musar  "Great depth for a wine of this age. Still very solid red with a touch of maturity on the rim. Looks about 15 years old. Classic nose: mature Bordeaux in character; signs of age and aromas reminiscent of very old cellars in France; lovely autumnal smells and meaty redcurrant fruit. Perfection on palate: full fruit and a great mouthfeel, with sweetness, length, great texture and perfect evolution; a little spicy and hot on the finish. Like an old Bordeaux but with better acidity, then a lovely aftertaste that conjures up the bonfire smells of autumn country walks. At its peak now. One of the best Musars I’ve ever tasted." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 20/20  "That summer I was invited to Château Langoa-Barton for an internship with Ronald Barton. What I saw, tasted and learned there affected me. If I had to describe myself, I was a civil engineer who made wine and who had started to discover the complexity of wine. I was trying to understand, to observe. I knew that nature will never repeat herself and for a while I thought I might change all the grape varieties that we were growing, but to plant grapes and make good wine takes 20 years, and what if I was wrong?  "However, I experimented a little with Grenache, Mourvèdre and Merlot. Looking back there were three stages to my winemaking. Between 1959 and 1964 I was making wines without an objective, with what we had at hand. From 1960 to 1970, having studied in Bordeaux and been influenced by Saint-Julien and Saint-Estèphe, I now realise that I was trying to produce wines in that style. Since 1970, I have been producing my wines, my way. Les vins du terroir Libanais." Serge Hochar 1959 Chateau Musar  "The oldest vintage presented by Serge Hochar in London in August 1979: fine, rich, mature; delicious bouquet; sweet, soft, fabulous. Twenty years later: orange-tinged; lovely old nose; still delicious. Last tasted at Musar in Beirut, Dec 1999." Michael Broadbent, Score: five stars Chateau Musar: the whites A blend of two local varieties, Merwah and Obaideh. Both grapes are partly fermented in oak
barriques (25% new each year) where they mature for a further nine months. They are then
blended, bottled and aged for a further six to eight years before release. 2012 Chateau Musar  "Fine fresh-looking lemon-yellow, but shows reassuring maturity. Dry honey and spices on the nose; a controlled richness of fruit on the palate that reminds me of Ygrec: complex, dry but with sweetness in its DNA before natural acidity lifts the exotic aftertaste. Lanolin smooth but not easy to assess (and not meant to be at this stage). Young white Musar that retains its mystery." Steven Spurrier, Score: 18.5/20, Drink: 2020-2035 2000 Chateau Musar  "Medium depth golden-yellow; no maturity showing. Still very closed on the nose, subdued, with a light floral nettle aroma. A bit astringent on the palate, but with mellow, soft textures and good acidity too. Needs time. By the next morning, the nose had come alive. The palate was beautiful, like a spicy Petite Suisse cheese, with great length. Nose continuing to develop on day three." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 18/20 1992 Chateau Musar  
"Deep orange gold. On the nose, beginning to mature and open up. Good depth and concentration. Lovely flavours of old Cheddar and surprisingly high acidity. Very good length on the aftertaste. Will age for a long time. After an hour in the glass, the wine started to develop characteristic honey aromas that also revealed themselves on the palate alongside a beautiful vanilla and beeswax aroma. The next morning saw it develop a rich, sweet, cognac-like nose; bone dry, powerful yet elegant on the palate with pronounced alcohol and a long finish. By day three, the middle nose had developed even more." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 18.5/20 "The weather was terrible. We had winter until June. Hail came. Biblical weather! I tried to make a Chateau Musar red, but two years later found it wasn’t up to standard, so we distilled it. The best grape that year was white Obaideh." Serge Hochar 1975 Chateau Musar  "Deep orangey gold; looks like a late harvest wine in colour. Nose; wow! Incredibly intense, concentrated, dry, very deep and austere: a combination of leather saddles, barnyard and old mahogany musky characters with mouthwatering citrus orange acidity. Astonishing complexity and intensity on the palate, with a syrupy texture. Massive, deep powerful, concentrated and long. Delicious flavours keep changing like a kaleidoscope in this mouth-filling but elegant wine. On day two it had aromas of sweet Australian ‘Tokay’ and a bite of cognac-like alcohol." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 20/20  1972 Chateau Musar  "Golden brass-yellow, very bright and alive. A superb nose with good depth and concentration, combining notes of apricot, brown sugar, cigar box and old charred wood. Unique. On the palate: a delicious, dry lean wine with a sweet finish and tremendous length. In perfect condition with a lovely lingering aftertaste. Very cerebral. Tastes of very old cellars. Day two saw an amazing development of the nose: very hard to describe but utterly riveting to the brain." Bartholomew Broadbent, Score: 20/20  [All extracts from 'Chateau Musar: The Story of a Wine Icon' have been published online with the kind permission of the Académie du Vin Library.] Read more Editorial 

The rise of Chateau Musar is legendary. We take a closer look at the vintages that have cemented the Lebanese estate's enviable reputation in the hearts and minds of critics and collectors alike.

Exploring the vintages that have made Chateau Musar such a fine wine icon – from 1972 to 2013 

Chateau Musar tasting notes year by year

When Alain Hudelot retired in 2008, it was his grandson who stepped up to take over the family estate, Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat. Charles van Canneyt – then just 20 years old and fresh from his wine studies – suddenly found himself managing 10 hectares of vines and running a winery. But he wasn’t any 20-year-old.  Gradually modernising the estate’s equipment and tweaking the winemaking (particularly toning down the extraction), he transformed the reputation of the domaine. Rapidly he became known as one of Burgundy’s rising stars, with Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat soon among the region’s most revered names. Not one to be complacent, he started a négoce label in 2012 – offering another avenue for Burgundy-lovers to get access to his winemaking talent.   Now he has – along with his wife Anne-Sophie – taken on a new challenge, having purchased a new estate: Domaine des Chézeaux. It’s unlikely you’ll know the name of this Gevrey-Chambertin property, but you’ll almost certainly know its vineyards.  This history of Domaine des Chézeaux  Domaine des Chézeaux was created by François Mercier in 1982, although the family has had vines in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin since 1928. The estate’s name comes from the Clos des Chézeaux, the walled vineyard next to the domaine. The family were land-owners rather than winemakers, so all their vines were leased out – en métayage – to other producers. This arrangement is common in Burgundy: the vignerons renting the vineyards manage them year-round and make the wine, giving a portion of their production (often around a third) to the vineyard-owner by way of rent.  This historic estate grew from its original holdings and – as of 1994 – consisted of around four hectares. The vines were split between three producers: Domaine Ponsot (and later Laurent Ponsot), René Leclerc and Domaine Berthaut (later Domaine Berthaut-Gerbet).  Ponsot rented the property’s original 0.89-hectare plot of Griotte-Chambertin, as well as Domaine des Chézeaux’s parcels of Clos Saint-Denis*, Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes. Domaine Berthaut leased the two Gevrey-Chambertin Premiers Crus (Les Cazetiers and Lavaux-Saint-Jacques) as well as the property’s village parcels, including the Clos des Chézaux. While technically the latter is a monopole, because Berthaut didn’t own the land it couldn’t be called as such.  Ahead of the 1994 vintage, the Mercier family purchased another parcel of Griotte-Chambertin, an additional 0.68 hectares that had been owned by Suzanne Thomas of Thomas Bassot, giving them the largest holding of this Grand Cru. The Esmonin family had been farming the vines in this parcel, selling some fruit to Jadot, and the Mercier family then leased it to René Leclerc (although the Esmonin family also continued to bottle the wine, with vintages of Frédéric Esmonin Griotte-Chambertin up to and including 1999 available). A portion of each of the finished wines was bottled under the Domaine des Chézeaux label, but was identical to that under the Ponsot, Leclerc or Berthaut labels – often at a fraction of the price.  Domaine des Chézeaux today In 2021, Charles van Canneyt managed to buy the estate and its enviable vineyard holdings. With all the vines under métayage contracts, the next challenge was to reclaim the vines – negotiating with each producer. By 2022 he had secured the monopole Clos des Chézeaux and Premier Cru Les Cazetiers, but sold the fruit. In 2023, having regained a parcel of Griotte-Chambertin, he made his first wines from the property.  By the time 2024 came around, he had managed to recover all the vineyards – adding Chambertin, Clos Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes. As part of the extensive negotiations, the Lavaux-Saint-Jacques parcel, some Gevrey-Chambertin village vines and two small sections of Griotte-Chambertin were sold.  The vines are generally old across the property, and the farming and winemaking is identical to that at Hudelot-Noëllat, with the fruit entirely de-stemmed and seeing very gentle extraction. The first vintages were vinified at Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat (but are being aged in the cellars at Domaine des Chézeaux), and work has started on a new winery that is set to be finished later this year (2025). Interestingly Van Canneyt has already seen the wines maturing differently at Chézeaux, with the particularly cool, humid cellar meaning the wines develop more slowly during élevage and need topping up less. He therefore anticipates ageing the wines slightly longer than those of Hudelot-Noëllat. The estate is retaining its historic name, but with new labels – helping differentiate from older bottlings made prior to Van Canneyt’s arrival. The name has the same origin as Echezeaux: chesaux – plural of chesal (which comes from the Latin, casellum or casalis) – meaning a stone house or building.   The Domaine des Chézeaux holdings   The estate now has around three hectares of vines, over half of which is Grand Cru, spread across six appellations:  Gevrey-Chambertin Clos des Chézeaux: This monopole vineyard covers half a hectare, with some of the vines almost 100 years in age (planted in 1929). Mid-slope and facing southeast, the village site has deep, clay-rich soils with gravel, sitting just below Premier Cru Cazetiers and neighbouring another monopole village site, Clos du Château, farmed and produced by Armand Rousseau.  Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Les Cazetiers: Chézeaux has 0.216 hectares of this Premier Cru split over two parcels: one of 0.1615 hectares in the northern section and 0.045 hectares in the south.  Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes: Van Canneyt farms around 0.6 hectares in this Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru, which he also has a parcel of under Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat.  Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru: There is a plot of 0.3776 hectares in Clos Saint-Denis, which will briefly be appearing in the range for 2024 (with just one barrel), but is now being replanted and out of action until 2029 at least.  Chambertin Grand Cru: A parcel (combining one tiny plot that sits next to their main plot) in the heart of this Grand Cru represents 0.143 hectares.  Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru: Chézeaux is the largest vineyard holder in this Grand Cru, with an impressive 1.264 hectares of vines, a parcel in the heart of this tiny appellation.  Spotlight on Griotte-Chambertin  Griotte-Chambertin, also known as En Griotte, is the smallest of the Chambertin Grands Crus, totalling 2.69 hectares (and is among the smallest Grands Crus in the Côte d’Or, along with La Romanée, La Romanée-Conti and La Grande Rue for Pinot Noir). It sits below Clos de Bèze on the slope, just below the Route des Grands Crus and sandwiched between Chapelle-Chambertin and Charmes-Chambertin, facing northeast. This aspect is important, allowing the vines here to ripen more slowly, not receiving as much morning sun. The wines made here tend to be more delicate, aromatic and perfumed, less muscular than is perhaps typical for the village of Gevrey-Chambertin, and therefore highly prized. Pebble-rich, chalky topsoil sits over deep, limestone bedrock, with more clay the further down the slope you go.  Domaine des Chézeaux is the largest owner of the site, with 1.246 hectares – almost half of the vineyard. Other producers who own vines here are: Joseph Drouhin (0.53 hectares), Fourrier (0.26 hectares), Claude Dugat (0.15 hectares), Marchand Frères (0.13 hectares), Joseph Roty (0.08 hectares) and Duroché (0.02 hectares), as well as now Laurent Ponsot (0.11 hectares) and an investor who has leased his small portion of the Grand Cru to Cécile Tremblay (circa 0.2 hectares). The origin of the vineyard’s name is disputed. Some argue that it comes directly from “griotte”, the word for morello cherry – tied either to trees that were once planted in the site, or as a reference to the character of wine it typically produces. Most, however, now suggest it comes from “criotte”, the diminutive of “crais”, referring to the chalky pebbles that are found in its soils.    Insider knowledge: Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin Historic bottlings of Domaine des Chézeaux Griotte-Chambertin have been something of an insider’s secret, as some are Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin under a different label. Some were the wine made by René Leclerc, and it’s not always possible to know which.  1982 to 1993 vintages inclusive: Domaine des Chézeaux only had their original parcel of Griotte-Chambertin during this time, and it was leased to Domaine Ponsot  1994: Reportedly, only one wine was produced under the Domaine des Chézeaux label in 1994 – the first vintage in which Chézeaux had their second parcel of Griotte, which was leased to René Leclerc. The wine from both parcels was blended together for the Domaine des Chézeaux bottling.   1995 to 2001 vintages inclusive: Two identical Domaine des Chézeaux bottlings of Griotte-Chambertin were produced during these years, with nothing on the label to indicate which producer made them.  2002 onwards: The producer of the Griotte-Chambertin is detailed on the Domaine des Chézeaux labels from the 2002 vintage. While there continued to be two bottlings up to and including 2004, from 2005 onwards, René Leclerc’s Griotte was only occasionally bottled by Domaine des Chézeaux, with the wine more often sold off in bulk. (The 2010 and 2011 vintages are the exception, with the Leclerc bottling returning to the Chézeaux line-up, but with the producer name detailed on the label still.)   The Ponsot wines also have the Ponsot name embossed on the bottom of the bottles. Laurent Ponsot retained the lease for the vineyard when he left the family domaine, 2017 onwards.   The future of Domaine des Chézeaux  While Domaine des Chézeaux has a surprisingly deep history for such a modern estate, it’s surely only the beginning. With a talented vigneron like Charles van Canneyt at the helm and such enviable vineyard holdings, quality at this address is only going in one direction – and we’ve no doubt the wines will soon be as hard to secure as anything else he produces.  Domaine des Chézeaux’s 2023s 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin, Clos des Chézeaux: This monopole vineyard covers half a hectare, with some of the vines almost 100 years in age (planted in 1929). Mid-slope and facing southeast, the village site has deep, clay-rich soils with gravel, sitting just below Premier Cru Cazetiers and neighbouring another monopole village site, Clos du Château, farmed and produced by Armand Rousseau. Charles van Canneyt noted how managing the surrounding woodland (in particular removing some trees) had totally changed the site – bringing better airflow and more sunlight to the vineyard. His first vintage is scented, with bright and lush dark red-berry fruit, alongside iris and violet florals. The palate is vibrant and juicy, but with a fine-grained grip – nubuck-like tannins that frame the fruit, while there’s a savoury, saline note on the long finish. 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin, Premier Cru, Les Cazetiers: The vines in the Domaine des Chézeaux parcel of Cazetiers are very old, lending additional intensity to this brilliant Premier Cru. The wine is delicate, with chalky minerality and delicate floral perfume that entices on the nose. The palate has an earthy minerality, but that’s complemented by beautifully transparent dark berry fruit. It’s firm in texture, with savoury mineral tannins that balance the wine’s natural juiciness. Effortlessly balanced, long and impressive. Five barrels were produced in 2023. 2023 Griotte-Chambertin, Grand Cru: Griotte-Chambertin is the jewel in Domaine des Chézeaux’s crown, with the largest holding of this small Grand Cru site – renowned for producing gloriously aromatic and elegant wines. Charles van Canneyt’s first vintage is seductive, with sweet spice and just the lightest touch of toast sitting alongside waves of supple red cherry fruit. The wine is bright – offering an instant intensity and fullness, plush and voluptuous, yet with effortless elegance. It’s tight at this nascent stage, but you can see how much more it has to offer, with a structure that deserves time. Smoky tones linger on the long finish. A superb début. *This wine is famously the one that got fraudster Rudy Kurniawan caught, after he was found selling older vintages of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis, although the property didn’t produce the Grand Cru prior to taking on the Chézeaux holding in 1982.  Keep an eye out for the first wines from the new Domaine des Chézeaux, which will be released soon; in the meantime, read more about Burgundy 

In 2021, Charles van Canneyt – of Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat – purchased the little-known Domaine des Chézeaux. Ahead of the release of his first vintage, we dive into the backstory of this Gevrey-Chambertin property – one that is set to be one of the Côte de Nuits’s most exciting new addresses 

Everything you need to know about this Gevrey-Chambertin wine estate, now owned by Charles van Canneyt of Domaine Hudelot-Noellat  

The new Domaine des Chezeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin 

The new Domaine des Chézeaux       

Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon is a legend of the industry. When he took the helm at Louis Roederer in 1999, he became Champagne’s youngest Chef de Cave, aged just 33. In a rare move for the time, he fought to ensure he was in charge of both the vineyards and winery – knowing that the former would define the wines he produced. Since then he’s continued to push boundaries in the name of quality.  The house is one of the last to remain family-owned and – even more rarely for a Grande Marque – it owns an impressive 242 hectares of vines, providing enough fruit for around 70% of its production. Lécaillon transformed the way Roederer farmed, pushing first for an organic, then biodynamic approach – with half the vineyards now certified organic and half worked biodynamically, and no herbicides used at all. The results speak for themselves – with the house’s prestige cuvée Cristal arguably the finest and most sought-after in the region.  And the man himself is as effervescent as the wines he crafts. Lécaillon is clearly still enchanted by the world of wine –absorbed by its complexities and totally excited by it. Talking to him at a recent tasting, he explains his aim simply: “We are going beyond the bubbles.”  For him, Champagne has traded on its fizz for too long. The wines were once sweet and served with dessert, they then became dry and were used as an aperitif, before becoming inextricably tied to celebrations – a curse that has limited the way Champagne is seen, and savoured. The industry has capitalised on its occasionality, but behind those bubbles – Lécaillon insists – is “a real terroir, a real wine”. It is this exact sentiment that is behind the Grower movement – something that Lécaillon clearly identifies with – however the movement also poses a threat to those trying to source fruit. For the little fruit Roederer doesn’t grow themselves (30% of their production), Lécaillon picks specific plots from around the region and tries to encourage growers to use a sustainable approach. The team will visit the vineyards in spring and summer, and choose the picking date with the grower. While today it’s sometimes tricky to persuade growers to change the way they farm, Lécaillon anticipates a generational shift will take place as more sustainability-invested children take over from their parents. Roederer used to buy fruit from Anselme Selosse, but – naturally –the star vigneron now keeps it all for himself. The fear is that the new generation won’t want to sell their fruit – leaving the Grandes Marques only lesser sites, farmed without the same stringency.  Everything Lécaillon has done at Roederer has been about championing site. He arrived at the house in 1989, but set off instantly for the property’s projects in Anderson Valley, California and then Jansz in Tasmania, returning to Champagne in 1994. Between 1996 and 1998, he worked on a soil study of the house’s vineyards, as well as an archive study – tasting wines back to 1876. When he took over in 1999, he separated all the plots – with 45 specific mid-slope chalky sites dedicated exclusively to Cristal, fruit for the Blanc de Blancs coming from their La Côte estate in Avize and the vintage wine based around Pinot Noir from their La Montagne estate in Verzy.  Changing the viticulture was the next step. In the 1970s, ’80s and even ’90s, Champagne’s soils were a literal dumping ground – with Paris’s rubbish used as “fertiliser”. Lécaillon is one of many that has pushed for change in this area. He feels that organic farming produces better fruit with more dry extract and concentration, but also healthier vines that are stronger and more resistant to the vagaries of vintage – and climate change. Half the property’s vines are now farmed biodynamically – including all the plots used for Cristal.  In a bid to further champion their terroir, Lécaillon established the region’s first private nursery in 2015. He wanted to gather different massale selections from the Roederer vineyards – cuttings from pre-clonal vines that he feels have adapted to climate change and will be key to the house’s (and Cristal’s) future. He claims that it’s the biggest private collection of Pinot Noir in France, and they’ve now expanded the nursery to include not just Chardonnay and Meunier, but all seven of the region’s permitted varieties – including the little-planted Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. The Chef de Cave feels that field blends with these varieties could be the future with climate change – adding freshness to the wine. Over the last two decades, Lécaillon’s work in the vineyard has brought further freshness and precision to the wines – and the introduction of Collection was the latest step in that direction, a move to “bring [the wine] closer to the terroir”.  Cristal might be the jewel in the house’s crown, but a non-vintage blend is any house’s calling card – representing the most significant volume produced (75% at Roederer) and the wine that reaches the most people. It is, Lécaillon says, always the hardest to produce, the most complex to blend – and yet also the one that receives the least attention.  Roederer’s Brut Premier was introduced in 1986, but back then Champagne was more marginal, viticulture and winemaking less advanced, and the battle was for ripeness. In vintage years, the fruit was actually ripe; the art of non-vintage blends was correcting the under-ripeness of the other years with reserve wines. Now, with climate change and the evolution of farming, Champagne has riper fruit than ever before, and an increasing number of vintage-quality years. “The battle now is not for ripeness, but for freshness,” Lécaillon explains. Collection 242 was released in September 2021, with many initially mourning the loss of Brut Premier; people, however, have been won round. As has become fashionable (along with the likes of Krug or even Nyetimber), the wine is “multi-vintage” or “MV” rather than “NV” or “non-vintage”. In Lécaillon’s view, “NV” is “corrective”, whereas, “MV is the story of the new Champagne”. Their aim is no longer consistency, but to make the best possible wine in that year.   He points to 2002 as a pivotal year in the journey to Collection. It was a stunning growing season, with every plot producing wine of vintage quality – but to build a consistent non-vintage wine, they had to “destroy” the quality of each. While Lécaillon feels Brut Premier was an “outlier” in the range, Collection is “more Roederer”, “more Champagne” – which, for him, has to have an oyster-shell salinity.  A key part of developing Collection was creating a perpetual reserve. Held in an enormous 10,000hl stainless steel tank, this reserve is a constantly evolving blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Started in 2012, it contains wine from every harvest since, stored without oxygen, in the depths of their cellar where the temperature is cool and stable. This, Lécaillon feels, brings extra texture, depth and a “vintage dimension” to Collection – without the heaviness that he saw in Brut Premier.  The blend also includes more traditional reserves aged in oak (around 10% of the final blend), all with fruit from the younger vines in plots otherwise dedicated to Cristal (only 20-year-old vines make it into the prestige cuvée). The most important element here is that the toasting of the barrels is very light, what Lécaillon describes as a “white toast”, so that it doesn’t dominate the terroir.  Collection 242 was followed by 243 last year – and they are two extremely different wines, the 243 riper and richer versus 242’s more mineral expression. This – for Lécaillon – is what makes an “MV” approach so much more interesting, for both him and wine-drinkers. It is, he tells me, “a blank page every year”.  With everything from zero-dosage experiments to rootstock trials, Lécaillon is constantly looking for ways to improve – with a relentless zest and enthusiasm. For this vigneron, a blank page isn’t daunting – it’s a chance to express his terroir.  Explore all listings from Champagne Louis Roederer or read more Editorial 

The man who crafts Cristal, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, is one of Champagne’s most pioneering winemakers. We sat down with the man himself to look back at his journey so far – and discuss why it’s high time people started taking Champagne seriously.

The man who crafts Cristal, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, is one of Champagne’s most pioneering winemakers. 

Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon of Louis Roederer

Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon: Champagne “beyond the bubbles”

Jewel

United States

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