Today in our en-primeur tasting from Bordeaux Wine-Searcher’s Wine Director David Allen MW is in Saint Emilion, visiting Chateau Belair Monange, a Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classe estate owned by the Moueix family. Here he tastes with the estate’s impressive new winery as a backdrop.
Château Bélair-Monange is a Bordeaux winery and vineyard rated as a Grand Cru Classé B in the classification of Saint-Émilion estates. It makes red wine based on Merlot with a subsidiary component of Cabernet Franc. It was known as Château Bélair (Dubois-Challon) until the 2008 vintage.
The vineyard is located just outside Saint-Émilion village. Since the 2012 merger with Château Magdaleine it covers 23.5 hectares. 2014 saw the debut of the second wine, Annonce de Bélair-Monange. The third wine is Haut Roc Blanquant (Grand Cru).
Plantings are 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Cabernet Franc. The last few vines of Malbec and Petit Verdot were removed by the current owners, Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix.
Vines are on average around 40 years old, with some planted in the 1930s and a few plants dating back as far as the 1900s. A large scale replanting programme is being spread out over the coming decades. In the sections of vineyard on the plateau and top terrace, soils are limestone. Vines at the peak of the plateau (88m/288ft) are considered to enjoy the best terroir. The parcels on the lower slopes have a combination of clay and limestone.
Two computer controlled laser sorting tables have been used since 2009, making the winery one of the earlier users of this technology. Alcoholic and malolactic fermentation take place in thermoregulated concrete and stainless steel vats. The juice and skins then goes to vertical basket presses. Press wine is retained separately, and may be added at any time (or not) to the other (free-run) components before the final blending. The grand vin is aged in French oak barrels for 18 months before bottling, with 50 percent new wood.
The estate was formed in the 14th Century, on land cultivated by the Romans. Wine production didn’t begin on the property until the 1700s. In 1850 Beéair was rated as the leading wine of Saint-Émilion in the authoritative Cocks et Ferret guide. It held this status well into the 20th century.
It is a close neighbor of the Grand Cru Classé A Château Ausone and was owned by the same family for much of the 20th Century, even sharing Ausone’s cellars. The family name Dubois-Challon, though not an integral part of the property title, was used to distinguish the estate from numerous other Bélairs in Bordeaux.
It was managed for a time by Pascal Delbeck, who had been the head winemaker at Ausone but, in 2003, he began selling shares to the Moueix family’s négociant business Éstablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix. By 2008, the Mouiex family was in complete control and the name was changed to Bélair-Monange.
Anne-Adèle Monange is the mother of Jean-Pierre Moueix, grandmother of Christian, and great-grandmother of Edouard, who now runs the property. In 1931 Adèle was the first woman from the family to settle in Saint-Émilion.
In the later 20th century the estate had fallen into a comparative state of neglect, considering its former reputation. With a new team in charge the wine saw a marked upturn in quality. Vineyard selection was made stricter, yields were lowered and the grapes were picked later. In 2012, Bélair-Monange was combined with the neighboring Grand Cru Classé estate Château Magdelaine. This was also owned by the Moueix family. Since then, one of the main projects has been to renovate and install extra supports in the limestone caves and subterranean quarries under the property.
Magdelaine had been a Premier Grand Cru Classé estate, but was omitted from the 2012 review of the Saint-Émilion classifications due to the merger. It was established as far back as the 18th Century but was in disrepair by the 1950s, when it was bought by Moueix. The Moueix family refurbished both the vineyards and the winery in the ’50s and for the rest of its history it made two Merlot-dominant wines. The last vintage made was the 2011.
To find out more about this wine, its pricing and where to buy it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/bel+air+monange+st+emilion+grand+cru+bordeaux+france/2024
To learn more about the en-primeur process and to follow the campaign as it develops follow this link to the dedicated pages on the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/en-primeur
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1 Comment
Really interesting wine, but not cheap… Would love to have it in my Cellar…
Thanks again for your interesting reviews!