“We recently commissioned Cornelis van Leeuwen, professor of viticulture and specialist in wine-growing terroirs, to carry out an in-depth scientific study of their terroirs,” Julien Richard of Château Tour Bayard explained on behalf of the group. “We discovered that most of the properties of our group are on the same kind of limestone as the famous limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion. In fact, the soils are very similar. This helps us get mature tannins and maintain freshness. We have observed this in the past, but now with the soil study, we know this to be the case. Our harvest is usually one week after the vineyards on the plateau. We tend to maintain lower alcohol. To do this study, we had to dig a lot of soil pits to be sure and to be able to map them. So, each winery that is a member of the Saint-Élites group has had soil pits dug to confirm their soils and subsoils. Cornelis is the godfather of our group because he believes very much in our terroirs. We are all family-owned wineries, and we each have our own identity. All our grandfathers knew each other! Nowadays, Bordeaux is losing family-run wineries. I think preserving a little bit of the humanity behind the wines is important. We decided to join together to become stronger and to have more visibility.”

Given the hotter recent vintages, it is truly impressive how this area keeps its cool. I drove through the Saint-Émillion satellites in September of 2022, the hottest and driest Bordeaux vintage on record thus far, and there were still a lot of green leaves on the vines. I’ve been impressed with the quality of Château Tour Bayard and La Rose Perriere, both members of this group, for a number of years now. The tiny 1.5-hectare estate of Clos Albertus, producing a wine of nearly equal parts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon, was a real find for me at this tasting. Indeed, all these wines come highly recommended, and a few are properties to watch as the potential to take on some of the more famous Saint-Émilion estates in the future is clearly there!

More information about the Saint-Élites group and its members can be found here.