ALL CHANGE

It’s the global benchmark region and known for its long-established traditions, but that doesn’t mean Bordeaux is at a standstill. Jane Anson highlights 10 estates determinedly treading their own paths, and potentially signalling ways for others to follow

- Jane Anson

Take 2,000 years of winemaking, throw in some French bureaucracy, and you can see why it’s easy to get the impression that things move pretty slowly in Bordeaux. It’s not true, of course. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the number of changes that happen here every year. Let’s just take it from January 2019 until today.

At a very quick glance, I could talk about the arrival of Australian giants Treasury Wine Estates, owner of Penfolds, with the purchase of Château Cambon La Pelouse. Or the sale of two classified Margaux estates: Château Cantenac Brown, from British businessman Simon Halabi to Frenchman Tristan Le Lous; and Château Dauzac, from French insurance group MAIF to Breton businessman Christian Rolleau. Or even another Margaux, in the shape of Château La Tour de Mons going from CA Grands Crus to the Perrodo family of Château Marquis d’Alesme.

On a winemaker level, there was movement from Château Haut-Bailly in Pessac-Léognan over to St-Emilion’s La Dominique for Yann Monties, and from Château Clerc Milon down the road to Mouton Rothschild for Jean-Emmanuel Donjoy.

The next few years will see another round of changes, from new restaurants at Château Réaut in Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux and at Troplong Mondot in St-Emilion, to the stunning new cellars due to open at both Lynch-Bages and Haut-Bailly. There’s even a super-glamorous 82-room Baccarat hotel due to open in a 60ha château just outside Bordeaux city in 2022.

All of which makes it difficult to pick just 10 estates to sum up the recent changes, but the following are a good place to start…

Château Fonplégade

St-Emilion GCC