The Thienponts reign over Bordeaux’s Right Bank. At Vieux Château Certan, Alexandre Thienpont – almost always dressed in his Barbour – rules, producing Pomerol of immaculate pedigree, as his family has for over a century now. Nearby, cousin Jacques Thienpont holds court at Le Pin, Pomerol’s original cult address. Nicolas Thienpont is another cousin whose domain stretches out from Saint-Emilion – from Pavie Macquin and Larcis Ducasse across to several estates in the Côte des Francs. And the dynasty continues to grow, as each thread of this complex family finds a new corner of the region to master.  The Flemish family has a long history in the world of wine, having traded French wine (especially Bordeaux) since 1842. Georges Thienpont – grandfather of Jacques, Alexandre and Nicolas) was the first to move into production, buying Ch. Troplong Mondot in 1921, then Vieux Château Certan in 1924. It wasn’t long before the Great Depression hit, however, and Georges Thienpont was forced to sell Troplong Mondot in 1934. Reportedly the only reason he kept Vieux Château Certan was that no one wanted to buy it – with vines holding little allure at the time. It was the château itself at Troplong Mondot, positioned at the highest point in the region and with a view across the village of Saint-Emilion, that allowed him to sell the Saint-Emilion estate. Georges continued to make wine through the Second World War and the devastating frost of 1956. Despite a challenging start, “VCC” (as it is affectionately known by wine-lovers) has become one of Bordeaux’s leading names.  It was Jacques Thienpont, however, who thrust the family firmly into the limelight. It was in 1979 that Jacques, then still a Belgian wine merchant, purchased a 1.6-hectare vineyard in Pomerol. The site had produced generic Pomerol, but Jacques started making tiny volumes of opulently styled wine, naming it after the lone pine tree (“le pin”) that stood on the property. The 1982 vintage was pivotal, receiving significant critical acclaim – especially from Robert Parker – and soon Le Pin became one of the world’s most desirable wines.  Just over 30 years after that first vineyard purchase, it seemed like fate when Jacques went to see a plot of land in Saint-Emilion right next to Troplong Mondot. Previously known as Ch. Haut-Plantey, the potential of the site was clear to Jacques and the symmetry of the Thienponts returning to where their family’s winemaking legacy began seemed fitting. He bought the property in 2010 and put Cyrille Thienpont (his cousin once removed) in charge of its daily running. In keeping with the arboreal theme, he named the Saint-Emilion venture L’If (the yew tree).  The first project the team undertook was a detailed soil map to get to grips with the site. The winery is in Saint-Laurent-des-Combes, just to the east of Troplong Mondot, with five hectares of vineyard around it and another two hectares of west-facing vines next to Saint-Hippolyte. The lower parcels are more eroded and sandier, but much of the vineyard sits on pure limestone and clay. They set about restructuring the vineyard – getting rid of the 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and increasing the portion of Cabernet Franc, with around 25% across the property today (any new plantings were with a massal selection from Pavie Macquin).  In 2013, Jacques bought another hectare or so of vines in Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse, right next to Ch. Puy-Blanquet. Despite the quality of the soils, Jacques was hesitant about buying such a “distant” plot, a whopping three kilometres as the crow flies – or a circa 10-minute drive. They pulled the vines out and replanted this additional parcel, harvesting its first fruit in 2018. Despite its youth, the fruit from the plot has made it into the final blend for every vintage of L’If since 2020 (“Worth the trip,” jokes Cyrille). Even with the significant replanting and this new plot, the average age of vines across the estate is around 40 – with the oldest over 60 years in age.  Work on a new winery finished just in time for the 2023 harvest, allowing greater precision and flexibility – with more space to work (and 16 concrete tanks for their eight hectares of vines). You might expect a flashy building, perhaps designed by a famous architect – but that’s not the Thienpont way. Understatement is everything for this family – and the winery is an almost exact replica of what stood there before, simply with more space inside, designed for simple functionality. In one corner stands an otherwise anonymous stainless-steel tank – the first one that Jacques bought for Le Pin back in 1979.  It was perhaps inevitable that L’If would sit in Le Pin’s shadow. But now, 15 years after Jacques Thienpont bought the estate, with a new winery and the significant work in the vineyards completed, L’If is building its own reputation.  Although the same team is largely involved in both estates, L’If is a totally different site and wine. The cool soils have better water-holding capacity, and budburst is around 10 days later than at Le Pin with its warm free-draining gravels – a gap that often widens as the growing season progresses, meaning harvest is significantly later here. Diana Berrouet Garcia – who acts as Managing Director for Domaines Jacques Thienpont, including both Le Pin and L’If – notes how at L’If the terroir seems to speak louder than the vintage and can better adapt to more challenging conditions, while the vines can struggle – especially in hot, dry years – at Le Pin. Where Le Pin is round, supple and exotic, L’If is linear, taut and mineral; one sensual and spherical, the other just on the right side of severe, with a crystalline quality. Even in the last few years, it’s amazing how the wine is evolving – nipping at Le Pin’s toes in terms of quality. Re-tasting the 2019, it’s amazingly approachable with a perfumed nose and juicy, pure fruit that complements the wine’s natural tension.   It's still comparatively early days for L’If –  and the team has invested significantly, focusing on shaping the vineyard and ensuring they have the tools in the winery to translate the work in the vines. For now, over half the vineyard is being used for the second wine, Les Collines d’If – something that will change in time, as they continue to replant parcels. As it happens, yews grow incredibly slowly – but are also some of the longest-living trees (Perthshire in Scotland is home to the Fortingall yew, thought to be 2,000-3,000 years old and one of the oldest trees in Europe). The Theinpont family is just settling in at L’If, but as they lay down roots, the potential is clear.   The Thienpont family: who does what?  Jacques Thienpont: Owns Le Pin, L’If and L’Hêtre (the latter with his sister Anne de Raeymaeker), but is also a co-owner of Vieux Château Certan. He oversees the family’s original Belgian wine merchant business, the Belgian Royal Warrant-holding Thienpont Wine, which is managed by his wife and award-winning wine writer Fiona Morrison MW.  Alexandre Thienpont: Co-owns and manages Vieux Château Certan with his son, Guillaume, as well as co-owning Le Pin with Jacques. Alexandre and Guillaume also farm the vines at Le Pin, L’If and L’Hêtre, as well as Vieux Château Certan.  Guillaume Thienpont: Manages Vieux Château Certan with his father, Alexandre, as well as making L’Etoile and Les Fillottes with his second cousin, François Thienpont. He also now manages Ch. Guillot-Clauzel, which is not owned by the family.  François Thienpont: Manages the family’s négociant business, Wings, as well as making L’Etoile and Les Fillottes with Guillaume Thienpont and is a co-owner of both Vieux Château Certan and Ch. Puygueraud.  Nicolas Thienpont: Owns and/or manages a group of estates with his son Cyrille: Pavie Macquin, Larcis Ducasse, La Prade, Laclaverie, Charmes Godard and Puygueraud.  Cyrille Thienpont: Owns and manages the Nicolas Thienpont group of properties with his father, as well as managing and making the wine at L’If.  There are many more members of the Thienpont family involved in wine, but these are the most prominent at the time of writing.   Explore all current listings of L’If or read more about Bordeaux 

Le Pin is one of the world’s most famous wines – but it’s just one of the Thienpont family projects. We dissect the dynasty and explore the evolution of L’If, the Saint-Emilion estate that is emerging as one of the region’s most exciting names

Jacques Thienpont created cult Pomerol wine estate Le Pin in 1979, but now he’s got a new project in Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux: L’If 

Exploring L’If: Le Pin’s Saint-Emilion sibling 

It’s four centuries since the Giraud-Hémart family first began farming vines in Aÿ, writing the first chapters of an extraordinary legacy.   Although they started out as tenant farmers, the Church granted them a swathe of land in the 17th century – with François Hémart the first member of the family to be registered in the parish records. The modern history of the family, however, starts in the 20th century, when a soldier by the name of Léon Giraud was garrisoned in Aÿ and fell in love with Madeleine Hémart. The couple soon married and had a son, Henri Giraud, moving into the property that the family still lives in today.  At the time, vineyards across the region had been abandoned in the wake of phylloxera and Léon set about replanting three hectares of vines. For 300 years the family had been growing grapes and selling the fruit, but after Henri returned from the Second World War, he and his father decided to start making their own wine – establishing the Giraud-Hémart label. The business grew and evolved, especially after Claude Giraud (Henri’s second son) arrived in 1972, aged just 20. Working with his father over the 1970s and ’80s they rejigged the vineyard holdings and acquired additional holdings to make up the 10 hectares they own today, as well as changing the property’s name to Champagne Henri Giraud.   In 1990, they started buying in additional fruit to meet demand and made their first vintage of Fût de Chêne – the wine that became Argonne from the 2002 vintage. Although in the 1990s the family was ageing wine in oak, it is only in the 21st century that they started working exclusively with oak from the Argonne forest – now integral to the House’s identity.  The Argonne forest was historically the source for much of the wood used in Champagne, home to over 150 coopers, but was gradually abandoned, suffering from particular damage during the Second World War. Henri Giraud has made it a mission to restore and protect the forest, working with the French National Forest Office (ONF) on a replanting program (and have planted over 60,000 trees to date). The House feels Argonne oak is a key part of their terroir – indeed their top wine takes its name from the forest. The poor, dry soils of the forest mean oak trees grow particularly slowly, resulting in a particularly tight grain, creating a delicately flavoured wood to complement the delicate wines of Aÿ.  Today, the business remains a tightly knit family affair – with the 13th generation running the show. Emmanuelle Giraud is at the helm of the House, having taken over from her father Claude, who while not officially part of the business remains present and involved in key decisions. Emmanuelle’s sister Anne le Golvet-Giraud was drawn to therapeutic practices, launching the property’s trademark Craÿotherapy – chalk-based wellness program offered at their in-house hotel (they were one of the region’s first producers to welcome visitors for tastings and now to stay). It is Anne’s husband, Sébastien le Golvet, who is in charge of the winemaking.  “It’s very important to always be curious, to seek something better from the wine, from the grapes,” Giraud tells us. No one embodies this philosophy at Giraud more than Le Golvet, a force who, since he arrived in 2002, has pushed to experiment and innovate both in the vineyards and winery. Over the last two decades, he’s introduced residue-testing on their soils to confirm their triple-zero approach (zero pesticide, insecticide or fungal control spraying – something they feel is more impactful than organic certification and have long pioneered), banished stainless steel from the winery (using only terracotta and wood) and toasts every barrel the House uses himself. Constantly looking for new ways to elevate the wines further, he has recently created and started using custom barrels with sandstone heads. As Emmanuelle tells us, his philosophy is firmly that, “The best wine will be the next one.”  Henri Giraud manages to balance being at the cutting edge with the patience that traditional-method sparkling wine requires. As Emmanuelle explains, they have to make sure everything is perfect from the moment the grapes are harvested – for any mistakes will be discovered in a decade’s time. While she’s concerned with broader strategy and planning for the business, when it comes to harvest-time, you’ll find her on the winery floor, managing fruit receival, each and every year, seeing the culmination of the year’s work.  Being independent and family-owned allows them the luxury of a truly long-term vision. Each vintage they make trials, the results of which will only be revealed in 10 years’ time, but they’re investing far beyond that – planting 12,000 trees in the Argonne forest each year, making sure that Henri Giraud will still be able to use this special oak in two centuries’ time. The House’s extraordinary wines reflect this vision, testament to their relentless pursuit of quality and remarkable attention to detail. Who knows what the next 400 years will bring – but it will certainly be worth following.  Explore all current Champagne Henri Giraud listings, including the amazing MV10, disgorged in 2017, or read more about Champagne and sparkling wine  

The Giraud-Hémart family has grown vines in Aÿ for 13 generations – starting to make wine under their name in the 1950s. Today Champagne Henri Giraud is one of the region’s smallest houses – and one of the few to remain family-owned. Here, we dive into the property’s heritage with Emmanuelle Giraud 

The Giraud-Hemart family has been growing vines since 1625. Today the family’s descendants run Champagne Henri Giraud – we dive into their legacy and wines 

Celebrating 400 years of Champagne Henri Giraud 

Four centuries of Champagne Henri Giraud 

2001 Chambolle-Musigny, Premier Cru, Les Amoureuses, Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier (and lashings of Beaujolais) – chosen by Daniel Johnnes, Wine Director of The Dinex Group and Founder of La Paulée, La Fête du Champagne, La Tablée and Pressoir  “This holiday I plan on opening several bottles of great wine. Great doesn't necessarily mean expensive or rare. I'll be sure to drink plenty of Beaujolais and mostly from my favorite producers, Morgon from Marcel Lapierre, Fleurie from Jean-Louis Dutraive and Chiroubles from Domaine Thillardon. As much as they are "drink everyday" wines, they also have the magic power of putting a smile on everyone's face.  “Yet, for that really special wine, I plan on opening a bottle of Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Amoureuses 2001 from Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier. Chambolle-Musigny is among my favorite villages in Burgundy and the Amoureuses vineyard could easily make a case to be classified as Grand Cru. It combines the perfume, texture, elegance and persistence typical of the very best red Burgundy. The style of Domaine Mugnier is one of refinement and grace. And with 20-plus years’ age, it should be perfect for drinking now. Even though it will accompany a roast chicken, this wine is like a celebration and a meal in and of itself.”  2018 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance – chosen by Jeffrey Koren, Head of Wine at Marceline, London  “While it’s easy to open a perfunctory bottle of Port or Sauternes at the end of a Christmas meal, the oh-so-delicious Vin de Constance by Klein Constantia has become my go-to sweet wine for the festive period over the past few years. Steeped in history, Vin de Constance was famously a favourite of Napoleon and lauded by authors like Jane Austen and Baudelaire. These days, winemaker Matt Day has revived this legendary dessert wine to its former acclaim. It always offers wonderful notes of apricot, honey and spice. But most importantly, it’s balanced by refreshing acidity that is an absolute necessity after an indulgent holiday meal.”  Hauller Frères Pinot Gris La Chappelle Signature – chosen by Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse, Ch. Beauséjour   “Ludovic Hauller is a long-standing friend I met during my studies in Burgundy. I appreciate the precision that his family channels into the wines, and this cuvée showcases great finesse, with freshness and elegance, mirroring the granite terroir in which the vines grow. It’s a Pinot Gris of remarkable complexity, hailing from a plot that sits below the Chapelle Saint-Sébastien de Dambach-la-Ville. Ludovic introduced me to Alsatian wines, which I knew little of previously, and I love this cuvée. As for when, this is definitely the kind of bottle I would open in the days following Christmas, with my family, playing board games by the fire and putting the world to rights, patiently waiting for the New Year!”  2002 Champagne Salon, Giuseppe Mascarello’s 2017 Barolo Villero, Tiberio’s 2018 Colle Vota – chosen by Lorenza Sebasti, Castello di Ama  “As usual, this Christmas we will open a magnum of 2002 Champagne Salon. I remember we had the chance to buy a few magnums a long time ago as they were precisely the birth years of our children (1997, 1999 and 2002). Then I guess I will spoil everyone at home with a beautiful Barolo Giuseppe Mascarello Villero 2017 and Colle Vota Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2018 from my dear friend Cristiana Tiberio. She makes very few bottles of this very elegant and vibrant wine, which is among my favourite reds.”  2021 La Morandina Moscato d’Asti – chosen by Donald Edwards, Head Sommelier at La Trompette, London  “Beyond the best white Burgundy I can lay my grubby mits on, I’ll be cracking the second bottle on a case of La Morandina’s 2021 Moscato d’Asti – part of a new festive tradition. Back when my wine appreciation was still protean, I heard a rumour that Moscato d’Asti – the sweet fizzy floral stuff that we sold in my Glasgow Oddbins – ages magnificently. Twenty or so years later, I’m the Head Sommelier at La Trompette, hosting a big Piedmont-themed wine lunch. Barolos and Barbarescos aplenty litter the room, but the wine that stops me in my tracks? A 2013 Moscato d’Asti from Giuseppe Vajra. It was phenomenal, still gleefully tasty, but now with a touch of extra weight, more waxy lime skin and late-evening summer flowers, heady in its bouquet. Here she was, my white whale, and, boy, she didn’t disappoint.  “Last December, visiting La Morandina in Asti, I asked whether they had anything with a bit of age and lo! a 15-year-old magnum appeared. My stars had aligned for a second time – the wine equally lovely, offering a bit more exotic spice, cardamom and coriander seed along with the sweet creamy lime zest. Crucially, this time I could see the germ of a plan. Each year, I would buy a cast of Moscato d’Asti, building a reserve of Moscato to steadily enjoy over the coming years. I’ll be the Christmas king of deliciously sweet floral fizz. So, on the morning of 25th, I’ll be twisting the top off the second bottle from last year’s case and smugly enjoying my Moscato and crumpet as I let my mind wander over the riches I’m preparing for the coming years.”  François Cotat Sancerre Le Mont Damné and Massican Gemina – chosen by Alex Sarovich, Founder and CEO of Own Rooted Hospitality  "As the oldest of five in a large Italian family, I've learned that selecting the perfect wine is an art form that requires careful consideration of both the food and the audience. When I'm hanging out with my twin 24-year-old brothers, they're all about vibrant, crisp wines like Champagne or Sancerre. If I can get my hands on it, I love surprising them with a bottle of Cotat’s Le Mont Damné, a truly exceptional wine that never fails to impress.  “In contrast, when I'm with my mom and aunt, we lean into our Italian roots. White wines from Italy are a staple in our household, especially when we're in the kitchen, cooking and preparing a meal together. This year, I'm planning to bring a bottle of Massican Gemina to our holiday gathering in McMinnville. This beautiful white blend, composed of Greco, Falanghina, and Fiano grapes from top California vineyards, perfectly captures the essence of our family's wine appreciation – a nod to our Italian heritage with a California twist.”  Coche-Dury Meursault, Domaine de Trévallon and Jean-Michel Gérin Côte-Rôtie La Landonne – chosen by Philippe Abadie of Alvina Pernot  “First of all, we decided to open a bottle of 2022 Meursault from Domaine Coche-Dury, given to us by a client to celebrate the birth of our son Pâris, who was born on January 1st 2022. We also really like the new style introduced by Raphaël since he took over this magnificent estate. Then Trévallon: my grandfather Georges from the south of France was an unconditional fan of the estate, and during my childhood there was always a bottle on festive tables (for birthdays, Christmas, New Year, etc) – so this will be a little wink to him. Then last, a bottle of Côte-Rôtie La Landonne by Jean-Michel Gérin. The story goes back to a few weeks after I first met Alvina, for this is the bottle of red we drank on our first restaurant date.”  2022 Domaine Yui A Rouge – chosen by Carlito Chiu, Wine Director at Andō, Hong Kong  “Established in 2019 by the dynamic husband-and-wife duo Tetsuya and Aya Sugiyama, Domaine Yui is a Japanese winery with a profound mission of unity and togetherness. Inspired by the meaning of the Japanese word “yui”, “to connect/link”, the Sugiyamas are dedicated to bringing people together through their shared love for wine and agriculture. Their A Rouge is a remarkable expression of Burgundy-style red wine crafted in Hokkaido, Japan – a specific blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris that showcases the region’s terroir. It is particularly special to me because it embodies the innovative spirit of Japanese winemaking, while honouring traditional techniques. For me, this wine represents the potential of Japanese terroir and the dedication of winemakers committed to producing world-class wines, making it a wonderful choice for celebrating the joy and warmth of the Christmas season.”  Read more Editorial

As friends and family gather together over Christmas, it’s the perfect time to pull the cork on something special. Here, some of the wine world’s biggest names – with leading sommeliers and top winemakers – to tell us what they’re cracking open this year, and why

Insight on what the wine world’s most famous names – sommeliers and star winemakers – are drinking over Christmas, from Salon Champagne to Vin de Constance 

What the wine world is drinking this Christmas

What those in the industry are drinking this Christmas

“I was broken-hearted,” says Tim Mondavi, his eyes glistening at the memory of how his family was forced out of their business, Robert Mondavi Winery, 20 years ago. Wine runs through the Mondavi family’s veins. Cesare Mondavi – Tim’s grandfather – made his first vintage in 1919, and the family purchased Charles Krug Winery in 1943, before Robert broke away to establish Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966. Luckily, when Constellation took over the business, the Mondavis left with “a bag of money” – something, Tim says smiling, that is better than being heartbroken and broke. He went in search of “a new love”, and so he built Continuum. The concept was simple: to “shoot for the stars”, Tim tells me, and craft a wine that would rival Bordeaux’s First Growths – as well as continue his family’s legacy in Napa. Having seen how their family business had grown, shifted and ultimately fallen into corporate hands, he and his sister Marcia wanted to keep things simple. The first few vintages were made with fruit sourced from Robert Mondavi, largely To Kalon – vineyards that Mondavi had worked for 30 years and knew inside-out. But he knew that site was everything, and thinking of Burgundy’s best wines, he looked to the hills – keen to find his own slice of “Grand Cru” terroir. So he “kicked a lot of dirt” – and in 2008, he found something.  Up-slope from Dalla Valle, above the fog line and neighbouring Colgin, a marine biologist called Leighton Taylor had planted vines on Pritchard Hill in the 1990s. He was a wine-lover and saw the roots he put down in these rocky, volcanic soils as his retirement plan. His children didn’t share his passion, and he decided to sell: enter the Mondavis. Tim Mondavi instantly realised the potential of the site and bought the 173-acre property. Southwest-facing, with sparse top-soil and the intense sunlight that this altitude offers, he named it Sage Mountain Vineyard, after the abundant wild sage found across the property. The area had been conventionally farmed and needed work, and Mondavi brought two of his old team onto the project. Together they worked to realise the potential of these rocky 70 acres of vines, regrafting, replanting and refining the farming – drawing on organic and biodynamic practices. Gradually, they started using fruit from the site for Continuum, and from the 2012 vintage the project was exclusively estate-grown, all coming from Sage Mountain Vineyard. In 2013, they completed work on a winery on-site – meaning everything was done in-house by their own team – a first for the family. For Tim, it was a big moment. The vintage happened to coincide with his 40th harvest, as well as the 100th anniversary of his father Robert’s birth – and the label bears a dove in tribute to him, flying over the vines.  Robert was not just the patriarch of the family but of the entire valley. He passed away in 2008, just a month after Tim had shown him Sage Mountain Vineyard. He was a force of nature, who not only built the family empire but put Napa on the map, fighting relentlessly for the region on the world stage. It’s hard to imagine that he was an easy man to have as a father. “There was no such thing as too much,” says Tim. “But there was no such thing as enough.”  Robert was, Tim tells me, “go, go, go” – and it’s clear Tim wants something different for his family. With Continuum, he wanted a project that could provide a balanced life – smaller than the smallest project at Robert Mondavi. Tim’s children haven’t run away from their fate or the family business. They’ve all worked at Continuum at one point or another: sons Carlo and Dante have gone on to establish Raen, their own Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir project in 2013, while Chiara has joined her father and is firmly in situ as winemaker at Continuum.  The Mondavis might be Napa royalty, but they’re also farmers – and they’re more aware of the challenges that climate change brings than anyone else. “Mother Nature has so many ways to remind us we haven’t been taking good care of her,” Tim says ruefully. The wildfires of 2017 brought that closer to home than they’d have liked. The Continuum team was two-thirds of the way through the harvest when Tim saw the glow on the horizon from his house. He instantly called to cancel the harvest, and ensure everyone stayed far away from the winery and vineyards – but his vineyard manager ignored him and drove straight up the estate, to check that none of the crew were already on-site ahead of their early pick. Luckily the team was all fine – but those fires filled Tim with fear.  They didn’t make a 2020 vintage, so the latest release – the 2021 – is the first for two years. They’ve been gradually increasing the proportion of Cabernet Franc in the blend, and the 2021 has the highest percentage to date (representing over a third of the blend). It is, Tim says, “our finest effort” – something he attributes not just to the year’s conditions, but over a decade spent getting to know each of Sage Mountain Vineyard’s 44 blocks. “To be truly great, you have to understand the site,” he says. The wine is elegant and pure, with a saline, earthy minerality that is an imprint of the property – something that runs through every vintage. Tim’s been making wine for 50 years now, but knows that he’s in a generational business. Continuum might be his new love, but he didn’t build it for himself – it’s for his children. “Our aspirations are large enough to contain the pursuit of excellence,” he says. Ambition’s never run short in the Mondavi bloodline – but, as Continuum proves, it’s backed up by not just good instincts but the drive, grit and hard graft to make those dreams a reality. The latest release of Continuum is available now

The Mondavis shaped the Napa we know today – but now Tim Mondavi is building a new future for his family with Continuum. As the 2021 vintage is released, Sophie Thorpe spoke to Tim about the project – and how it’s about much more than wine

How Tim Mondavi is building a new future for his family with Continuum, a special wine estate on Pritchard Hill in California’s Napa Valley

Exploring Tim Mondavi’s Continuum wine estate

A lasting dream: Continuum

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

So far, so normal in the Scotch whisky world. What happened next is quite unusual. Not one of the experts – with decades of experience and dozens of book credits to their name – could so much as hazard a guess.   The answer to the seemingly simple but dastardly question dumfounded them all. The as-yet-unidentified liquid was a single grain Scotch whisky that had slumbered in a lone Sherry butt for 53 years. Now almost jet-black in colour, the single grain had taken on incredible, rich notes of dried fruits, roasted coffee, and muscovado toffee – and it was indistinguishable from a greatly aged single malt.   The Cask Trials, which is the name given to this highly unusual liquid that left some of the finest palates awestruck and not-so-secretly hoping for a bottle in their gift bag, is just one of the panoply of independently bottled House of Hazelwood releases from the Gordon family’s private Scotch whisky archives.   Somewhat surprisingly, you won’t find a single malt among them. These rare whiskies, which have been amassed over the past 100 years by the owners of Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, were released to the public for the first time in 2022 in two, painfully scarce, collections. The Charles Gordon Collection (all priced above £3,000 per bottle and aged for at least 40 years), and the Legacy Collection (priced between £950 and £2,000 a bottle) are all well-aged blended Scotch, blended grain and blended malt whiskies that have been matured in the most novel ways.   “Bringing old, expensive and unusual blended whiskies to the market is slightly counterintuitive,” House of Hazelwood Director Jonathan Gibson – who was instrumental in creating the range – candidly tells me. “It's not overly common within the industry.”  It’s also not overly common within the industry to bottle liquids of this age and provenance with playful names such as "Blended at Birth", "Sunshine on Speyside" and "The Old Confectioner’s", in understated packaging at these price points.  The liquids are undeniably scarce (once they’re gone, there really is no more) and old (few are under 40 years of age, and the oldest tops 50 years), but they are undeniably unusual and at odds with the highly successful formulaic approach others have followed of encasing precious liquids in highly ornate, priceless vessels that weigh more than a small child.    “They're not concept releases,” Gibson explains. “Everything is driven by the whisky. The packaging is quite straightforward. It's a nice bottle and it's classically engraved but we haven’t collaborated with the hottest designer. The idea is really just to give the whisky room, provide a platform, without overshadowing it,” he adds.   “Over the past 10-15 years – and it's no bad thing at all – you can see a lot more old age-statement single malts coming onto the market,” Gibson says, “And typically they're very straightforward in terms of their naming. It's distillery name, plus age statement equals a certain financial value.  “The naming of these releases is slightly playful, but actually if you look at them one by one, they're very straightforward. It's not quite a Ronseal, ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’ approach, but it's not too far away from that. If you said ‘Blended at Birth’, it could be seen as quite playful but it's also quite descriptive and the same for ‘The First Drop’ and ‘Sunshine on Speyside’,” he explains.   It's clear Gibson, who has been involved in the project since the start, has genuine affection for the whiskies and the stories each one has to tell. He and the team are custodians of historical artefacts that the Gordon family have not parted with for the best part of a century.  “The First Drop”, for example, is named as such because it is the first liquid to run from the stills at the Gordon family’s Girvan grain distillery on Christmas day in 1964. This is the first and last time it can be purchased. “There's a real emotional tie from the family to these whiskies,” Gibson explains. “For the current family members, it's their dad who laid down these whiskies and he's not around anymore.  “I think it's actually quite difficult for the family to let some of these whiskies go, even though there's a begrudging acceptance that they can't drink such quantities and it was time they cut the cord and let these whiskies go out into the world.”  “There's a general principle that we're following where the whisky is ready to go when it's ready,” Gibson explains, “so we're not chasing down a 60-year-old age statement just so that we can put a big 60 on the bottle.”   It has been a pleasant surprise for all those involved to witness the reception the House of Hazelwood whiskies have received from an occasionally prickly and vocal audience.    “Sunshine on Speyside had an amazing response and it's one of the least expensive whiskies within our range,” Gibson says delightedly.   “It was selected because of its character and its flavour, and named because it has this amazing mango/ pineapple popsicle fruit character that transports you to sunshine and the Caribbean. It's one of those ones where everyone instantly agreed that it had to go into the first collection.   “I thought that everyone would be drawn to the oldest whisky at tastings but actually, this whisky captured the imagination of a lot of the writers and the trade.”   It’s hard to emphasise quite how unusual these whiskies are, as most releases – old or new – are described in hyperbolic terms.   “Blended at Birth”, which was released as part of the first collection, is a blend of malt and grain whisky that was married and matured as new-make spirit. Today, it is against the Scotch Whisky Regulations’ technical file to produce a whisky in this way, as you now have to age the malt and grain whisky components for a minimum of three years separately before blending them, so any liquids of this ilk on the market are painfully scarce.   “Unusual” and “esoteric” aren’t always necessarily loaded with positive connotations – you might take a sip of said liquid, politely smile and then return to something slightly less unusual and more palatable – but these whiskies have incredible balance and depth of flavour, in part because they are blends and not single malt whiskies.    “These old grains in particular are just unbelievable in terms of the flavour,” Gibson says with unfettered joy. “At a younger age, grain whisky is quite neutral in character but once you're past 30 years, if it's aged well, grain whisky has a luscious, delicious quality which adds so much to the final profile of the Scotch.    “The variation in style is enormous,” he continues. “I thought I understood old grain whisky but on exploring the inventory further you see these amazing grains that you didn't really know you could get.”   These whiskies wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for the foresight of the Gordon family  – and two brothers, in particular, who changed the company’s stars during the mid-20th century. The young Charles and Sandy Gordon brought much-needed vim and vigour to what could be a bit of a staid industry in the late 1950s. The pair famously refused to kowtow to demands from their grain whisky supplier – instead pulling the contract and setting up their own grain distillery, Girvan, in the 1960s. Charles – or Charlie as he was known – even forwent the comfort of his own home and instead lived in a caravan on-site during the build, riding a bicycle to stealthily check on the workers’ progress. His unconventional methods clearly paid off as the sizeable distillery (which still stands today) was built in a record nine-month period.  During their tenure, the duo also interrogated every aspect of whisky-making from distillation to maturation, resulting in the bold decision to employ an on-site coppersmith and cooper – which are still in situ at many of the William Grant distilleries today – to give the family more control. They were a formidable pair and the business arguably wouldn’t have survived some of the challenging periods in Scotch whisky’s history had it not been for their fortitude.     “There's something about family ownership that means you have a bit more luxury to maybe indulge some of your creative whims,” Gibson says with a wry smile. “This independence enabled them to explore ideas that might have been hard for others to justify to their board of shareholders.”  When other producers would have been forced to make very difficult decisions in order to survive those darker years, the larger, independent William Grant would have been slightly more insulated. Out of curiosity alone, they would have been able to hold on to barrels of maturing liquid and see how they developed over time.  These are the barrels that the House of Hazelwood team – and by extension us – now have access to. Each one has an incredible story – and an even better depth of flavour. With eight releases each year as a minimum – and the suggestion of some partnership releases to come as well – there is an audience, who count the great and the good among their numbers, desperate to venture into this unexplored and curious realm of blended Scotch whisky.  Read more Editorial and browse all whisky 

Few Scotch whisky releases have incited as much fervour and intrigue as the House of Hazelwood’s independent bottlings from the Grant family’s private cask library. Holly Motion caught up with Jonathan Gibson to discover why this emporium of curiosities is so tantalisingly unusual

Exploring the success of the independent bottlings from the Gordon family’s extraordinary private collection

The story behind the House of Hazelwood

House of Hazelwood: selling the family jewels

Much has been written about Promontory. The property was discovered by Bill Harlan in the 1980s, hidden behind a ridgeline in Oakville, and its story – one that almost feels mythical – has been told many times (including by us).   Those stories, however, don’t prepare you for standing in this vineyard. “The territory”, as the team refers to the estate itself, is totally hidden from view – a good 10-minute drive from the winery (which looks out over the Harlan Estate vineyards), tucked to the south, over the hills from Dominus, found via a warren of dirt-tracks that cut through the forest, until – suddenly – you’re there.  Perched at the top of just one of the various parcels of vines, Cory Empting (Managing Director of Winegrowing) stops the truck as our jaws drop. We scramble to get out, blinking in the peaceful sunshine that beats down on an enchanting, untamed idyll. “There’s a quality to the silence out here,” Empting says – breaking the quiet that we’ve been soaking in. As the crow flies, Promontory isn’t far from Harlan Estate – yet the difference is, in Empting’s words, “kinda scary”. Fault lines make for a unique mix of soil types – sedimentary, volcanic and, most importantly and rare for Napa, metamorphic. Plots of vines are sparsely scattered across the wild, forested mountains, the undulating, varied slopes offering an almost endless range of aspect and microclimate. (As one alum told me, laughing, “It’s beautiful – but a total b**** to farm.”) The elevation is higher than at Harlan Estate – with the lowest point at Promontory the equivalent altitude of the highest point at its sibling property – making it generally cooler. Harlan Estate is manicured, while Promontory has a rawness about it – a sense that it isn’t, and never will be, totally domesticated. It's taken a long time to get here. Bill Harlan’s quest to create a Californian rival to Bordeaux’s First Growths (started in the 1970s) had kept him hunting for land, enough that would allow him to produce the same volume as the Left Bank’s most grandiose addresses. He bought his first 40 acres in 1984, the founding stone for Harlan Estate, and has continued tracking down special vineyards ever since, first for Harlan, then BOND and Promontory.  Although he’d first identified the location for Promontory in the 1980s (while hiking through this part of the valley), the property was developed by Girard Winery in the meantime, and he didn’t have the chance to buy it until 2008. Bill got a call that it was going on the market – and that’s when he rang up Will (his son, now Managing Director for the Harlan family of wineries) and Empting. “Then the economy started tanking,” Empting says – and suddenly the property that had been a stretch became increasingly affordable as its price dropped. The decision to buy was easy. But there was no reference point for the project, no historic bottlings to judge against, just a feeling about the place, and its potential.  “It was the wild west when we got out here,” Empting explains. The vineyard was in terrible shape – trees had been cut down and left where they fell. There were weeds growing taller than the vines. It had been left to become truly feral. There were even end-posts suggesting a row of Pinot Noir that was clearly Cabernet Sauvignon, while there were Cabernet Sauvignon clones that looked like nothing they’d seen before.  They committed to farming the site for three years before changing anything, so they knew what they were dealing with. But it soon became clear that the soils had been destroyed, robbed of organic matter, the vines emaciated, producing truncated shoots.  To date, they have replanted half of the 80 acres of vines. And the redevelopment work has been substantive, including un-doing terracing. They worked with superstar consultant agronomists Claude and Lydia Bourguignon (the first in the US to do so) to help regenerate the soils. But the philosophy here is ultimately Fukuoka-inspired: “How can we do one thing less? … That’s our church,” says Empting.  Fifteen acres have been replanted, rather unconventionally for Cabernet Sauvignon, untrellised – goblet-trained. This is partly because the metamorphic rock is so fractal that a unified hedge just didn’t make sense. Air flows in all directions, the sun hits each vine differently, they’re resilient for dry-farming and it allows the team to pick and move in any direction in the vineyard. Even more unusually, they’re planting rootstocks by themselves, grafting only once they’re three or four years old – when deemed ready. “I’m a Montessori parent,” Empting jokes, referencing what he describes as his “mixed pace” vineyards, letting each vine develop at its own rate. And this sense of responding to and working with, rather than against, the vines is key.  In a move that’s incredibly rare for hillside or mountain sites in Napa, their goal is to dry-farm. While the inspiration might have been wine quality (looking for more concentrated, balanced fruit), it is now ultimately about long-term survival in a changing climate. “We’re not going to have the water,” Empting says frankly. Convention suggests that each vine in the ground acts like a straw, sucking water from the soils. But, as Promontory have proven through experiments, it is not that simple – relating to the number of leaves on the vine, as well as its age, among other things. In fact, they have found that higher density plantings are easier to dry-farm.  To help avoid irrigation, they focus on respecting the vine energy – that means they don’t hedge or leaf-pull, and will only green harvest if they absolutely must (when nature throws them a curveball) – pruning to what they want the vine to grow, avoiding wasting any inch of the plant’s efforts. The resulting clusters are tiny, with yields reaching a maximum 38hl/ha, but often a mere 20hl/ha.   Cover crops and permanent grass cover, as well as grazing, have been key to repairing the soils. They’re still having to use a little bit of compost in some areas, Empting confesses almost guiltily – something he considers “a sign of imbalance”. Animals are a key part of “holistic farming”, Empting says, and he’d love to have chickens in the vineyards – “If the coyotes didn’t see them as a free meal,” he jokes. They’ll bring sheep in to graze early in the season, so that the cover crop has time to grow back. The regrowth can then be trampled naturally by the vineyard team as they work – operating as a rustic form of crimping or rolling. This aids water retention, the natural layer of “thatch” keeping the soils cool and preventing evaporation. If it’s not already clear, this isn’t a standard vineyard or estate – or, more accurately, family of estates. This is all part of Bill Harlan’s original vision, a 200-year plan to create a wine dynasty to match those of the Old World. The level of detail, effort and expense that goes into BOND, Harlan and Promontory is remarkable. They have a team dedicated to Research & Development – ensuring that they are at the forefront of viticulture and vinification, pushing any and every boundary in the name of quality.  One key element of this is their Vine Masters program – elevating what might historically have been seen as blue collar work to the skilled profession it really is.  The large majority of vineyard workers in California are of Mexican origin (some statistics suggest as high as 95%). There’s reason for this, with a long history of seasonal-working that stretches back to 1917, yet there’s often a division between vineyard and winery – a division that the family is working hard to broach.  The Vine Master program was first introduced at Harlan. The principle is not alien – a “Vine Master” is dedicated to a specific block, giving a sense of ownership, yet also meaning they know that block inside out. But – and this is what sets Harlan apart – to earn that responsibility (and it is a significant responsibility when the wine sells for upwards of £800 a bottle), the Vine Master has to go through a modular education program (developed in-house), passing both theory and practical exams. The Vine Masters can then take ownership for a block, and have the freedom to do what is required for their plot of vines. In what feels distinctly Californian and ever-so-slightly hippy-inspired, they’re also encouraged to, for example, hike through the surrounding hills, helping them think laterally.  Empting explains how one of the Vine Masters was sitting in his block on a break, looking up at a tree, and realised that trees naturally find their balance by dividing the diameter of their trunk fairly at each divide – only if there is sufficient girth will it split. He took this concept and pruned his block accordingly, only leaving multiple shoots where the vine could handle it. In the dry 2020 vintage, his vines were the only ones that reached the top wire (of the trellis), with the others all struggling. His methodology was rapidly implemented throughout the vineyard. The vineyard supervisor is more like a coach than a manager, and the vineyard work is more integrated with the final product. For example, the pruning process starts with tasting the wine from the previous vintage, so they can align on the energy of the vines and any challenges, before taking their shears to the vine. “You can’t prune a vine without thinking what it tastes like,” Empting says – yet that is what many vineyard workers will have to do.  This responsibility isn’t something that everyone wants – but skilled labour is, along with water, key to the future in California.  Empting expects the valley floor to be entirely mechanised in the imminent future – and if that’s the case, the question is: “How are you going to retain the talent that you have – and gain more?” he says. While originally they didn’t want to give each Vine Master too much land, they’ve found they work almost 40% faster than a crew – able to work more efficiently, doing what is needed when it’s needed, saving on the transition time within plots.  There’s been a constant evolution in the winery as well, inevitable as they learn more about this remarkable place, and realise the potential of its terroir. The challenge is to tame the significant phenolics – and the shift here fits with that familiar pendulum swing, with a move towards elegance. As with the vineyard, the goal is to do less not more – something that isn’t always easy. “We wait all year to turn grapes into wine,” Empting explains – the excitement sometimes becoming overzealous.  While soil health was, as Empting describes it, “the first hurdle”, David Cilli (Winemaker at Promontory) had been doing much in the winery, gradually dialling in the extraction, with shorter macerations and cooler temperatures (with a maximum of just 26˚C), halving the number of pump-overs. The wine is now mainly fermented in concrete (all with indigenous yeast) and aged in Stockinger foudre – ranging in size from 10 to 60 hectolitres – for 30-36 months.  When they first made the wine, they thought that they’d want and need to separate out the different blocks – since they had such varied profiles. They decided they were willing to sacrifice as much volume as was needed to make the best wine possible for the first vintage, and set about making various micro-blends, as well as one that included everything. The whole was so much more – its harmony so much more appealing. “They need each other, in a weird way,” Empting explains.   Until now, the wine has been made exclusively with the old vines, those that were planted when they arrived, with the new vines not yet mature enough (the young-vine fruit has instead been used for The Mascot). The 2022 will be the first vintage to include some of their earliest replants, which are now 10 years old.  While shifts here have mainly been gradual, 2020 was a significant moment. The first wildfire took hold on 18th August, although it was across the valley – far enough away for there to be no urgent threat, but the team was (especially with 2017’s fires fresh in their memory) on edge. Empting recalls spending time driving up and down the valley watching what was happening. They grouped together and decided to start picking on 22nd August – a good two weeks earlier than normal. They weren’t certain it was the right decision, but also weren’t prepared to risk everything to wait. Two weeks after they finished, the Glass Fire swept through the valley. Anyone that hadn’t picked was at significant risk of smoke taint.  Nature might have forced their hand, but it was a push they needed. The resulting wine stunned them all. It’s a world away from the high-octane reds that Robert Parker favoured – and any Napa stereotype. This is a bright, pure and elegant expression of site that sits at around 13%. And while the team’s fear was that it might not have the tannic depth of a true “Grand Cru” – a wine destined to be cellared – that is simply not the case.  They realised they didn’t need those extra two weeks on the vine for phenolic ripeness. The dry growing season had meant the vine only had a small crop to ripen, helping them out, but the year totally shifted their perspective. In 2021, they picked on the same date. In 2022 – a noticeably hot and dry year – they picked even earlier.  Tasting the 2020 alongside the 2016, ’17 and ’18, the difference is drastic – although the progression is there in the earlier vintages. It marks a sea-change for the estate – one that may divide pundits. But the 2020 matches their vision of this place: while they think of Harlan as a wine of gravity, Promontory is a wine of “lift”.  The Harlan family’s wines don’t come cheap – but you aren’t just paying for good wine (and it is, undoubtedly, very good). Yes, it’s a smart winery, with the very best equipment. But the money isn’t going on new barrels and expensive consultants each year, it’s being invested in the people, place and practices that guarantee its legacy. The 2018 has only just been released, so the 2020 won’t hit the market until 2025. But like anything these visionaries do, it will be worth waiting for. Tasting Promontory 2016 Promontory Will Harlan describes the 2016 vintage as one of the first wines that they felt allowed them to compete on a global stage. Still incredibly youthful, it’s somehow almost approachable yet has significant structure behind. There’s a plush richness to the fruit, a firmness and depth to the tannins that needs time, yet a vibrancy too. It’s just starting to become more supple, yet the phenolics grip onto the finish, drying it out very slightly. The fruit is starting to mellow, mingling with savoury tones. Significantly more weight than the other vintages. 2017 Promontory Deeper and darker, the 2017 shows an intensity and firmness – its framework almost aggressive after the 2016. The structure is boxy, yet also refined, and starting to meld together with the bright, fresh fruit. With air the wine shifts from black to red fruit, relaxing into itself. Fruit reverberates on the mouth-watering finish. 2018 Promontory The 2018 confirms the direction of change. Although on paper the wine looks similar to 2016 (in terms of analytics), this is significantly different – offering a transparency and vibrancy. Empting describes it as “athletic” – a fitting way to describe a wine that feels lithe. The fruit sits on the red spectrum, with super-fine velvet tannins forming a chiselled, linear structure. There’s a lift and florality to the nose, complementing the long, pure palate. 2020 Promontory This is a wine of amazing precision and perfume. A pivotal vintage for the estate, picked two weeks earlier than normal and before fires swept through the valley, it’s a stunning wine. Extraction was gentler and the alcohol is around 13%. It’s a wine of brightness and texture – a fine, chalky, powdered grip of tannins that complements the seamless fruit. The nose shifts with florals and earthier minerality, a savoury, saline edge to the crunchy fruit and juicy acidity. There’s purity and delicacy, with a finesse that is truly remarkable. Find out more about Promontory, or read more Editorial

The Harlan family isn’t like other families. We spent time with Will Harlan and Managing Director of Winegrowing Cory Empting to talk about Promontory, the vision and philosophy behind it – and why the 2020 vintage is a pivotal moment in this special estate’s tale

How the Harlan family is creating Napa wine estates that are destined to become the stuff of myth: Promontory, Harlan and BOND

The Harlan legend and legacy – Promontory

Legend and legacy in Napa: the Harlan family and Promontory

Since Bruno-Eugène Borie took over Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou in 2003, the estate has become one of the best-known and most-loved properties in Bordeaux. The 2023 vintage will be his 20th at the helm – during which time the estate, and the region, have been transformed.  “Everything has changed, and nothing has changed,” Borie says, laughing. “Go all the way back to 1720. Even then, Ducru was trying to improve and adapt to current market conditions.” While he insists that Ducru’s quest to produce the best wine possible dates back centuries, facilitating that motivation has not always been easy. Bordeaux thrived throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries, prior to the arrival of phylloxera in 1875. The economic turmoil in Europe during the first half of the 20th century was even more challenging, and the recovery slow. It’s only really in the 21st century that many of the top Bordeaux estates have regained the resources and clawed back their premiership. Borie took over Ducru at a key turning point for the region – with both the climate and markets rapidly changing. Economic reform in China led to a huge influx of new customers for the fine wine market, and Bordeaux in particular. “China represents 30-40% of the Bordeaux sales today,” says Borie. “It changed everything.” For Borie, this sudden and huge expansion of the market began to lure investors from all over the world. As investment flooded into the region, new wineries, new equipment, new viticulture and new technology began to pop up everywhere. “More investors meant more managers, and more managers hired innovators,” says Borie. It facilitated a whole qualitative movement that, he believes, is behind so much innovation in the region. But the investment in Bordeaux was not the only factor behind the big changes at Ducru. Borie’s decision to slash production had a huge impact on the estate. Before he took over, the property made around 15,000-20,000 cases of the Grand Vin. Today, it’s closer to 7,500 to 8000. Few estate owners can attest to such a dramatic drop in yield for the sake of quality. Such a bold move was certainly helped by Ducru’s independence – it is one of the few Classed Growths that is still 100% family-owned. And the risk has paid off, with Ducru regularly competing for wine of the vintage in the Médoc. Climate also brought about big changes at the property. Borie’s first year in charge – 2003 – was the hottest on record. Soaring temperatures were causing havoc all over France and not just in the vineyards. “People were dying on the streets of Paris,” recalls Borie. He remembers his viticulturist at the time came to him in June, suggesting they start leaf-thinning the vines (removing leaves, opening up the canopy and bring more sunshine to aid ripening). With the vintage’s blazing sun, Borie thought it was madness. “People did it because it’s what they always did,” says Borie. But he resisted. He quickly realised it would be the weather – rather than tradition – that dictated work in the vineyard going forward. As harvest dates crept forward, the days of an August off at the beach were disappearing. Everything was changing. While the investment and innovation in these early years coincided with rapid change in the region, it is over the last 10 years that Borie has witnessed the most impactful changes in Bordeaux. In the vineyard, these changes have not arisen from flashy new machinery, but in the strategic employment of companion planting and cover crops. These agricultural techniques have been used through the ages, but, Borie believes, never as dynamically and rigorously as today. “We plant a certain type of radish in the vineyard where we find compaction, this opens the soil and creates more oxygen. We plant alfalfa at the beginning of spring where needed, bringing nitrogen to the soil at the right time,” he explains. The control of organic matter, Borie believes, is the key to healthy soils, healthy vines and, most importantly, the quality of the grapes. But, Borie is quick to emphasise, this is not simply a revived practice from the days before chemical farming. For Borie, the science behind which and what cover and companion crops to use is much more advanced. Practices are no longer habitual, but much more scientific. “The companion planting of crops between the rows is very new,” says Borie. “Each plot has different requirements.” It doesn’t always work. Borie recounts how the planting of sorghum to encourage the root development of the vines resulted in a nematode infestation (a pest similar to phylloxera) – and the sorghum was quickly replaced. They’re still learning, admits Borie, but he’s convinced the vineyards have never been in better shape. Over the last 10 years, there have also been technological developments in the winery too. Borie is very proud of his “smart” tanks – which analyse the must and wine throughout fermentation, 24 hours a day. It’s a game changer for Borie who has been experimenting with them since 2019. In recent vintages, the Grand Vin has been made exclusively in these tanks. The information these tanks provide is perfect for monitoring temperatures and maceration levels – allowing Ducru to get the best out of the tannins without over-extracting. With live updates on what’s going on inside the tank (and no need to manually take a reading), they can adapt their processes instantly. Ducru has always been family-owned – giving Borie a sense of responsibility and duty. He still lives at the estate, making it one of the very few inhabited châteaux in the Médoc. Borie resides in one of its famous towers, while his mother (95 years old) lives in the other (and still enjoys two glasses of wine for lunch and one for dinner).  As custodians of the estate, Borie – and his mother – have witnessed many changes. And as Borie has grown accustomed to greater precision in the vineyard and winery, he has returned to consider older vintages in the estate’s cellars. He and his team set about checking every mature bottling, re-corking only those in perfect condition and destroying the rest. These bottles are more than history, they represent his family – and his sense of duty to their reputation has been the driver behind many similarly costly projects over his 20-year tenure. Having the opportunity to taste the entire range from Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou from the magnificent 2019 vintage (now all in bottle) was a wonderful experience. Across the range, it is the textural quality of the wines that really stands out. The clarity of fruit – which Ducru has become renowned for – is also apparent. The quality of the Grand Vin, however, is so impressive – the depth and concentration, the layering of abundant tannins while never losing its finesse. Even at such a young age, its drinkability is a perfect example of contemporary Bordeaux with that extra level of precision. Tasting the 2005 alongside proved how well the wines at Ducru age. Still youthful with plenty of fruit, the first hints of midlife tertiary development bring so much complexity to the palate. It was only Borie’s third vintage, but the lower yields produced a wine of incredible concentration and balance.  The fortunes of history and the new wealth in Bordeaux has benefitted practically every property in the region but few have been so effective at capitalizing on it than Ducru. The transformation of this Saint-Julien property, both in the vineyard and winery, is impressive but there is, Borie believes, still room for improvement. His latest investment is a state-of-the-art winery planned for completion in 2024. With Borie in the driving seat and committed to championing the Super Second’s – and his family’s – reputation, Ducru-Beaucaillou is in a safe pair of hands. Browse all Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou listings or read more Editorial

Ch. Ducru-Beaucaillou had been transformed under Bruno-Eugène Borie. On the eve of his 20th vintage at the helm, Gavin Smith sat down to talk to the winemaker and owner about the changes, family – and why there is still more he can do at this Saint-Julien Super Second

On the eve of Bruno Borie’s 20th anniversary in charge of Ducru-Beaucaillou, he identifies his key motivations behind transforming this Bordeaux Super Second

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