Château Cantemerle has extensive been affiliated with wonderful value Bordeaux wines, but its new common manager Laure Canu would like the estate to be recognised for its top quality, relatively than its charges – and a major new investment decision in high quality will play a key component of this. Arabella Mileham sat down with her to come across out a lot more.
Just after joining Château Cantemerle from 5 decades as deputy standard supervisor of Château Angélus in 2021, it is probably no shock that Laure Canu, who educated as a law firm in Paris right before finishing a Master’s diploma specialising in Wine and Spirits Management, brings some thoughts to shake items up at the the fifth expansion chateau in Haut Medoc. 1 of the oldest houses in Bordeaux, it can day its historical past back again to the 12th century.
Final 12 months Colin Hay’s gave the chateau a glowing critique for the 2022 classic, promising that this was the commence of issues to come. And Canu clearly agrees. The 2022 vintage noticed a phase up in phrases of high quality, with an extraordinary vintage – and she argues that the 2023 is possible to show the way of travel for the estate.
“We are quite very pleased of the high quality of the 2023 – it really is not a significant stage between the 2022, which was so remarkable, but the 2023 is much more like what we want to make. It is a great indicator of where by the estate is going.”
Her said intention – to make Cantemerle’s reputation considerably less about the fantastic value of the wines, and extra about its undoubted high quality – is anything that she admits may possibly consider “a quite lengthy time”. Even so, as effectively as her own comprehensive journey, Cany has lately hired profits director, Pierre-Alexandre Gazaille to strengthen the teams’s ability to produce their marketplaces and discuss to clients both of those in Europe and across the world. The US, for example is a important target market where it presently does much less than 10% in the US, “but for this sort of an vital sector, I feel we could do greater,” Canu notes. “We have to be careful to have far more stability in distribution.”
“There is certainly a thing friendly about Cantemerle – you get a heat welcome as they know the brand name and you can open a bottle a drink it, it is approachable, you can open it young or retain it for ages,” she describes. “Nonetheless, it is really vital to realise the excellent of the wines, the terroir and the work associated, so they really do not just feel about the cost,” she stated.
In addition, the group have “great partnership with negociants”. “We’re blessed to have a profits folks with the negociant who is keen to assist us with this undertaking, who believe in the wine and in us” she claimed. “It is crucial to discuss about the good quality before the price tag.”
And becoming in a position to welcome people today to the renovated area, with the new chateau, orangery tasting rooms and the new vat space will support underline this, she notes.
Even so, Canu’s programs are getting tangible kind in the “massive investment” and renovation project undertaken by its proprietor, French insurance plan team SMABTP group, who purchased it from the Dubos spouse and children in 1981.
This two-calendar year venture will see the restoration of the 18th century chateau and orangery, to offer improved accommodation for readers and friends, as properly as a large tasting area and boutique.
Even so, the biggest opportunity for reinforcing the good quality of the wine will come in the sort of the new vat place, which will triple the range of barrels of all dimensions, and introduce a gravity fed method, finish with underground barrel cellar.
This new financial investment on the chateau and winemaking facilities arrives on top SMABTP earlier investment in the winery which have been replanted and reshaped and included to back again in the 1980s/90s.
“There have been only 20 ha of vines, so the vineyards ended up in a pretty bad point out,” Laure Canu describes. As a end result, the vineyards ended up replanted and “rebalanced” in terms of varieties with Merlot and Cabernet Franc decreased in favour of cabernet sauvignon.
“When they acquired Château Cantemerle, there was 36% cabernet sauvignon, currently that is 67%, so that has been a enormous modify.”
“They invested a large amount in the winery forty yrs back, and now we have a winery that is in terrific form, with extremely healthful vines, but it was aggravating to have the specialized set up relationship back again to the 1990s, with major vats, as we could not perform with precision”.
The to start with purpose of the renovation was the new technical vat home, which is expected to be completely ready in summer 2025. This new space will have 120 new vats – triple the selection in the aged place, ranging in size from 35hL to 170hL.
“This wider array will enable us to do the job with larger precision employing gravity fed from harvest to ageing, as we will have an underground barrel cellar,” she claimed.
The variance this will make will be huge, Canu describes. “It is a massive move up the quality of wines. Château Cantemerle has usually been very constant – typical vintages like the ‘17 or ’13 were usually incredibly great due to the fact of the terroir – and we will keep the type, Cantemerle’s signature magnificence and the freshness of the wine, but we will attempt to incorporate some flesh and complexity, the mid-palate will be additional specific, as nicely as the good quality of the tannins.”
It will also make it possible for the group to enhance their awareness of the vines and plots, she extra, and thus capable to be extra selective about the very best parts of the winery. “as you did not know the intra-plot high quality, every single part of the vineyard, and that will be much larger than it is today.”
While the cellar won’t be completed till 2025, the team have by now began to make these changes in a momentary cellar, a temperature managed region which was formerly employed for storage. It has also experienced some of the new stainless steel vats already, changing some of the more mature wood barrels – in long run they will only use stainless metal, Canu adds.
“We started the advancement function on the high-quality of wines final 12 months. We have much a lot more selection – we applied to develop 70% of the grand vin and 30% of 2nd label, but from 2022 we make your mind up to generate only 60% of the grand vin, so that we can concentrate of the heart of the winery, and the oldest vines, specifically of the cabernet sauvignon.”
This variety was pretty successful, she notes – and the high quality of the 2022 stood out so a great deal that the staff decided to have “at least” 70% cabernet sauvignon in the closing blend each yr in order to have the signature of the cabernet sauvignon and “the gravelly terroir” (prior to it was a little bit a lot more advertisement hoc, based on the classic, she describes)
The workforce has also dialled back its oak-ageing, with less and significantly less new oak getting used “in get to focus on the terroir”, Canu describes. “The ageing interval is brief in any case, only 12 months, and it employed to be 40% new oak. In 2022 and 2023 it was only 35% but we are experimenting and currently trying diverse percentages.”