During my recent trip to Bordeaux one estate I visited was the beautiful Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classe Chateau Bellevue, whose vineyards sit on the chalk hillsides behind Chateau Angelus. The estate’s 17th century Chateau is a great setting for tastings and I was able to taste 3 mature wines. This video is the last of three recorded with different vintages of these wines.
The estate currently covers almost 5 hectares, of which almost 3 hectares is planted to Merlot. The property, which includes one hectares of parkland dotted with trees, lies almost two kilometers due west of Saint-Émilion town.
The vines average 40 years of age. They are planted south and southwest-facing slopes, on clay-limestone subsoils, which get richer in the latter towards the top of the Saint-Émilion hill. Fruit is entirely hand-harvested. The wines are fermented in a mix of concrete, oak and stainless steel. The wine is then aged in oak for 16-20 months. Around 15,000 bottles are produced annually.
The château building is a former 17th-Century Carthusian monastery site once belonging to the Lacaze family. Through a succession of Lacazes, it was inherited in the mid 20th Century by a first cousin of the family, Louis Horeau, who took over the property in 1938, to be succeeded by his sons-in-law, Jacques Pradel de Lavaux and René de Coninck.
In 2000, famed Bordeaux consultants Nicolas Thienpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt oversaw upgrading the château’s wines and its vineyards. In 2007, the de Coninck family sold its share in Château Bellevue to Château Angélus and the Boüard de Laforest family. Bellevue was reinstated as a Grand Cru Classé under the new ownership combination in 2008 after a couple of years where its Grand Cru Classe status was in obeyance until the reclassification itself was overturned. In 2022 the estate and its vineyards were divided with 3 hectares of vines going to Chateau Angelus and the Chateau and the remaining vineyards staying with the Pradel de Lavaux family.
Building on the family’s long history with the property, Axel and Inès Pradel de Lavaux have been co-managers since 2022, with Axel in charge of winemaking. Other family holdings include Château Martinet (another Saint-Émilion property), as well as Château La Renaissance and Château Saint-Pierre in Pomerol.
To find out more about this wine, its price and where to purchase it follow this link to the Wine-Searcher website: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/bellevue+st+emilion+grand+cru+bordeaux+france/2012
▶️ CHAPTERS:
0:00 Location of Chateau Bellevue
0:22 Chateau Bellevue Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classe 2012 wine label
0:32 Ancestors of current owner the Pradel de Lavaux family have owned this estate since 1642
0:42 The Chateau is a 17th Century chartreuse that had belonged to the Carthusian monks
0:52 In 1938 the estate passed from the Lacaze family to other branches of the family, the Pradel de Lavauxs and de Conincks
1:02 In 2007 Hubert de Bouard from Chateau Angelus buys out the de Connicks
1:12 When this wine was made the estate was owned and run by the de Bouard and the Pradel de Lavaux family
1:22 The last of the Cabernet Franc here was pulled out in 2015 leaving only Merlot
1:33 Average vine age is 40 years and the oldest are over 120 years old
1:42 The Vineyards are on a gentle south-west facing slope
1:52 Influence of the limestone soils on the wine
2:01 From 2000 Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt were engaged as consultants
2:12 The 2006 reclassification of Saint Emilion did not include Bellevue as Grand Cru Classe
2:30 2006 reclassification was overturned in the courts
2:40 2012 classification did include Belllevue as Grand Cru Classe
2: 50 The estate is now solely owned by the Pradel de Lavauxs after Hubert de Bouard left in 2022
3:12 WINEMAKING – approach is to try and preserve the fresh character of the fruit
3:22 Hubert de Bouard oversaw some fermentations in open topped barriques
3:32 Fermentation includes a proportion of whole berries
3:42 Malolactic conversion occurs in French oak barriques and is followed by 16 -18 months ageing
3:52 2012 vintage in Saint Emilion
4:12 Blend
4:22 TASTING – Appearance
4:47 Aromas
5:36 Palate
6:20 Ability to age and state of maturity
6:30 Quite a few wines from 2012 continue to offer some good value for money
6:43 Score
6:53 Conclusions
7:03 Thanks, closing remarks and sign-off
▶️Follow this link to watch a playlist of tastings of wines from Saint Emilion: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVa2LhpxQpevJE3wDxyf_QddeeXlj00O3
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