Producer Profile
Château La Fleur-Pétrus
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The vineyard of La Fleur-Pétrus was shrewdly purchased in 1950, an outstanding year for the property, by the négociant Jean-Pierre Moueix.
Jean-Pierre Moueix came to Bordeaux with his family in 1929 and settled in Libourne, a town just west of Saint-Emilion and just south of Pomerol, where he founded his négociant business in 1937. Throughout the 1950s he bought several well-known properties nearby. As well as La Fleur-Pétrus, the family properties now include Trotanoy, Certan de May and Hosanna in Pomerol, and Bélair-Monange in Saint-Emilion.
Jean-Pierre’s son, Christian – who is also responsible for the exquisite Bordeaux-blend reds at Dominus Estate in California’s Napa Valley – became president of the company in 1991, and from 2003 Christian has run the family properties with his own son, Edouard.
La Fleur-Pétrus has undergone significant changes since it became part of the Moueix stable. The vines were almost totally destroyed by the devastating frost of 1956 so the whole vineyard was then replanted and needed time to gain maturity. In 1994 Christian Moueix was able to buy four hectares of the best plots of neighbouring Le Gay, which have added to the quality, and since 2011 the wine also benefits from a highly regarded 4.5-hectares plot from Guillot.
This brings the total vineyard area to 18.7 hectares, situated on the Pomerol plateau, and planted in the deep gravel which gives its wine such elegance and distinction.
The blend is 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc, which spends 20 months in oak, 35% of which is new, and can age for between 10 and 30 years.
Regional Note
St Emilion, Pomerol
Saint-Emilion
There is an ancient history of wine making in the area of St Emilion, with Roman viticulture attested to in the poetry of Ausonius after whom the Première Grand Cru Château Ausone is named. The vineyards and much visited town have been awarded UNESCO world heritage List status as a cultural landscape and are enjoying a period of particular dynamism and prosperity.
Merlot is the dominant grape here with cabernet franc in earnest support and some supporters of the more difficult to ripen cabernet sauvignon. The soils, damper and cooler than those of the Médoc, are responsible for this and merlot performs beautifully in the clay, limestone, gravel and other alluvial deposits that make up the vineyard soils. Much is made of the clay based soils of the area but the picture is a broader than that.
If we ignore the areas down by the river and on its flood plain and the satellites that we discuss elsewhere, there remain two main areas where the quality of the wines speaks for the terroir.
The first is up on the plateau that abuts the border with Pomerol. A continuation of the plateau of sand and gravel that defines the best wines of Pomerol, this area is home to the most sought after of all Saint-Emilions, Château Cheval Blanc. The second group of properties are to be found on an escarpment east of the town of Saint-Emilion, where a thin layer of topsoil overlays a bedrock of sandstone on south-facing slopes that end suddenly and precipitously. Though the best wines of the second group are less highly regarded than the best of the first group there are superb wines in both.
Unlike its Pomerol next door, the wines of Saint-Emilion have access to a classification system akin to that of the 1855 Médoc version. Established in 1955, the Saint-Emilion classification is redrawn every ten years, which always causes a legal rumpus as demoted properties seek redress for the insult. Wines are assessed on several criteria such as soils, aspect and vine age and are tasted for typicity. Once accepted at one of the three levels the wines are required to adhere to stricter appellation rules than their supposedly lesser fellow estates with regard to yields and ageing.
The levels of the classification begin with the Grand Cru Classé properties of which there are several hundred (there are 800 or so estates in Saint-Emilion in total). Above this is Première Grand Cru, with 18 member currently, and at the top the Premières Grands Crus (A) which consists of the Châteaux Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angelus and Pavie, the latter two having been promoted in 2012.
At its best Saint-Emilion should be should be rich, full-coloured, spicy and apparently sweet, and the best properties balance these qualities with finesse length. No white wines are made.
Pomerol
Despite not having a classification system like the Médoc and Saint-Emilion, Pomerol has an enviable reputation for some of the very best Bordeaux wines that can fetch eye-watering prices. However, at its best Pomerol produces sublime wines with a rich, almost fleshy, velvety flavour. It's worth buying the best which are never cheap.
The appellation is tiny, only 785 hectares, but within this flat but bijou acreage there are a great number of small estates with few of the grand châteaux that crop up throughout other Bordeaux districts. The land is effectively a great bank rising in gentle terraces from the Dordogne and Isle rivers, consisting of a good deal of clay leavened by gravel and sand in varying quantities depending on where you stand. The sandiest slopes, making the lightest wines, are on the lower slopes close to the Dordogne, and the best terroir is considered to be up in the north-eastern corner where the clay is at its thickest. Here you will find the big names of the appellation such Châteaux Pétrus, La Fleur Pétrus, Lafleur and Vieux Château Certan. Nowhere is more than 40 metres above sea level.
Merlot is at least 80% of planting and is similarly represented in any blended wines, though many are pure merlot. Cabernet franc is runner up here, with cabernet sauvignon and malbec also permitted.
The influential Moueix family have been incredibly important in the development of Pomerol’s reputation as a fine wine appellation, both as négociants and as owners of some of the finest properties. Pétrus, Lafleur Pétrus, Hosanna and Providence are all under their ownership.
Vintage Note
Bordeaux Vintage 2013
If you are a claret drinker who rates charm and finesse over power, and who likes to drink their wines rather than speculate in them, then 2013 is a vintage for you. The best red wines have great freshness, modest alcohol, perfumed fruit flavours and moderate tannins, and most of them will be ready to enjoy over the short to medium term.
This was a testing year for the Bordelais. A damp winter gave way to a cool and wet spring, and flowering took place in less than ideal conditions in the middle of June. As a result, fruit set was poor, particularly so for merlot so that wines from those areas where merlot is usually very dominant have a higher proportion of cabernet in the assemblage. The sun eventually came out though, and in July and August temperatures were several degrees warmer than the average. Humidity was something of a problem, with Christian Moueix describing conditions as ‘tropical’, and crop thinning was vital to rein back the vegetative cycle of the vines.
Hot, humid conditions continued in late September and early October, and encouraged the development of rot in the ripening grapes. As a result, châteaux were forced to move extremely quickly to pick their grapes before disease could spread. Those who did so, and particularly those with vines on free-draining soils, achieved ripeness in their grapes, and produced wines worthy of their reputations.
At the more modest petit château level, where means are more limited, many producers opted to sell off their wine in bulk rather than bottle it. Thus 2013 at this level is either best avoided or be sure to taste first, or stick to the tried and tested names.
For the production of sweet wines, conditions at harvest were nigh-on perfect with noble rot prevalent. The resultant Sauternes and Barsacs exhibit lovely balance and freshness, and have a very long life ahead of them. Dry whites are aromatic and zesty with the same backbone of fresh acidity that the reds and sweet wines display.