2024 Futures

80% Merlot, La Chenade is the almost second wine of the Cruzelles. Designed and conceived by Mr. Durantou (Église-Clinet), this is one of the best quality/price ratios on the entire right bank. In confidence!

Since its acquisition in 1998 by Mr. De Neipperg (Clos de l'Oratoire, Canon-La Gaffelière, La Mondotte), d'Aiguilhe has been part of the new generation of very ambitious wines that bring the appellation of the Côtes de Castillon to a new level. It has just won a second star in the 2023 guide of the Revue du Vin de France.

Les Trois Croix is the personal property of Mr. Léon, who was technical director of Mouton-Rothschild for more than 20 years. He is dedicated to producing straightforward, digestible Fronsacs, among the most elegant and distinguished in the sector. The dresses are not the darkest but the power and harmony are there. In confidence!

In 2008, Denis Durantou acquired this Château for which he fell in love at first sight. A splendid 12 hectare clay-limestone vineyard on the first line of the Dordogne hillside, Montlandrie is in Castillon (which it directly overlooks) the equivalent of Ausone in Saint-Émilion.

As in his other properties (L'Église-Clinet, Les Cruzelles, La Chenade...), Denis Durantou used all his know-how and perfectionism to produce a fresh and floral wine, with a crisp and juicy fruitiness. Few Bordeaux wines are as deserving of the term "vibrant wine" as Montlandrie.

Certified organic since 2015 and with a vineyard that is entirely biodynamic, Château de La Dauphine aims, beyond its 350 years of history, to set an example of modern winegrowing that is mindful of environmental issues. The wines, with more finesse than extraction, lack neither substance nor charm. "La Dauphine is clearly one of Fronsac's benchmarks," says Mr Galloni.

In the same family since 1609 (!), Moulin Haut-Laroque offers a disciplined Fronsac: ripe and rich without excess, softened by the sweetness of its Merlot (65%) and by a judicious breeding. A sure value of the appellation.

Remarkable success in 2015 and 2016.

Under the leadership of M. Thunevin (Valandraud), La Vieille Cure presents a more greedy and less square profile than before and reveals itself as one of Fronsac's major properties.

Beautiful vineyard of 10 ha (90% Merlot) in Fronsac, where the owner, Mrs. Rullier, invests herself without counting. We find his energy in Dalem, with wines, full and assertive but also endowed with a real elegance.

Mr. Durantou (owner of Église-Clinet who died in 2020) produced only 1500 cases per year of his remarkable Lalande de Pomerol Les Cruzelles. Incomparably superior to the neighbouring Pomerol of the same price.

Selection of the best parcels of Château de Carles (10 ha out of the 20 ha of the estate), certainly the finest and most ambitious wine of Fronsac, making since 2000 equal game with the best classified growths of the slopes of Saint-Émilion. A great wine that should be kept for at least 6 to 8 years.

With 12 hectares cultivated in biodynamic farming, certified since the 2007 vintage, Clos Puy-Arnaud is one of the great Côtes de Castillon wines that have nothing to envy to neighbouring Saint-Émilion.

Uncompromising, the great wine that has made the estate's reputation is an authentic cuvée, straightforward, deep and made for laying down.

Mr Derenoncourt, Bordeaux's most sought-after consultant, is also a producer. Obviously, he (with his wife) applies in his vineyards the methods that have made his success: respect for the terroir and biotope, subtle vinification and maturation, wines of great aromatic precision.

Started in 2003, the adventure of Clos Louie is a textbook case: doll's vineyard (2.3 ha) on a beautiful clay-limestone terroir of Castillon, very old vines (150 years old!) mostly Merlot and red tail malbec, careful biodynamic cultivation, double manual sorting during the harvest, little interventionist vinification, gentle maturing in 500-litre demi-muids. A true artist's wine, absent from the guides but that informed amateurs know well.

Couhins' clear progress, seen in white wine since 2009, is now being felt in red wine. Here, it is not power that is sought but balance, aromatic delicacy and palatability.

A family estate reawakened in 2011 by the arrival of son Paul Garcin, a former rock musician on the Bordeaux scene. An instant switch to organic and biodynamic viticulture, to produce intuitive, artist's wines that are immediately sapid and have a strong pleasure note. As a deliberate iconoclast, Paul Garcin makes a point of offering different facets to each Haut-Bergey vintage: a classic cuvée vinified and matured in the tradition of Bordeaux's great growths, the more contemporary Cuvée Paul, and single-vineyard cuvées highlighting their respective terroirs.

An approach hailed by the Revue du Vin de France: "A modern vision and the ability to reinvent oneself without betraying: Haut-Bergey symbolises the current vitality of Bordeaux's most historic vineyard".

L'Esprit de Chevalier follows the same path as a great wine: an increasingly fine structure, a remarkable qualitative evolution in recent vintages, and an ever-relevant quality-price ratio.

In both large and small years, Latour-Martillac produces each time a remarkably distinctive and balanced wine, the sure value of the appellation. The same regularity being displayed in its prices, Latour-Martillac has become a priority choice in Pessac-Léognan.

Promoted to two stars in the Revue du Vin de France's 2023 guide for the whole of his work, in red as in white!

More famous in the 90s for its whites, Carbonnieux has for the last ten years clearly raised the level of its red wine in power, matter and velvety texture, joining the best vintages of Leognan. With its value for money, unquestionable within Pessac-Léognan.

Roundness, suppleness and depth of flesh are the hallmarks of the consensual red wines produced in Larrivet Haut-Brion, advised by Mr. Rolland until 2014 and then by Mr. Derenoncourt. No link between Larrivet (in Léognan) and Haut-Brion (in Pessac).

The second wine of Haut-Bailly, called La Parde de Haut-Bailly until 2018. In the same style as its big brother, all restraint and finesse, and increasingly charming thanks to an increased proportion of Merlot since 2010.

A second wine of “flawless consistency and unfailing elegance”, according to Bettane & Desseauve (Guide 2025).

Bought in 1988 and then renovated from top to bottom, Malartic-Lagravière is back to the fine, straight and distinguished style that made it successful in the 1950s and 1960s. Malartic-Lagravière continues its ascent has earned the 2018 vintage unanimous critical acclaim: 93/100 from the Revue du Vin de France and 94/100 from En Magnum « il faut plus que jamais compter avec Malartic parmi les incontournables de l'appellation ».

Second red wine of La Mission Haut-Brion, created in 1991 and greatly improved since 2006 by the addition of the entire vineyard of La Tour Haut-Brion.

Mr. Derenoncourt's arrival as a consultant in 2006 has given the Domaine de Chevalier an extra touch of charm and softness, while preserving its distinguished finesse. Its success has been dazzling in recent vintages, gradually raising it to the pinnacle of the appellation.

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Since 1985, Pape Clément has magnificently combined the bouquet and natural finesse of the Graves with the power of its terroir (comparable to that of the greatest Pauillac wines). It is undoubtedly one of the super seconds on the left bank, what is confirmed by the marks attributed to its latest vintages.

Although Les Carmes is adjacent to Haut-Brion and its vines were once part of those of Haut-Brion, the wines produced there are radically different from those of its prestigious neighbour. Due to a particular subsoil with the presence of clay, the vines are mainly Cabernet Franc (42%) and Merlot (40%) and the wines, deep and tasty, have an immediate generosity more typical of the right bank than the left bank. The new team set up following the acquisition in 2010 immediately propelled Les Carmes to the top of the Pessac-Léognan's wines.

Haut-Bailly is the most delicate of the Graves wines with a particularly silky tannic structure.

Practically abandoned in 1993 when Mr. and Mrs. Cathiard bought it, Smith Haut Lafitte is today one of the 10 greatest vintages of the Bordeaux left bank. The road they have travelled is truly admirable, and the Cathiards have spared no effort: restoration of the vineyard, construction of a vat room and underground cellar, introduction of state-of-the-art equipment, conversion to organic viticulture...

Second red wine of Haut-Brion, named as such since 2008 (previously Ch.Bahans Haut-Brion). To underline the stylistic kinship with his big brother, Le Clarence is put in the same very special bottle.

Occupying the southern flank of the Haut-Brion gravelly hillside and capable of exceptional success in "small" vintages, La Mission is a powerful first growth in a more fleshy and opulent register than Haut-Brion. Proof of this is its formidable 2017 rated 96/100 by M. Galloni (Vinous) "Effortless, graceful and wonderfully nuanced, this 2017 simply has everything going for it. What a wine". As for the 2016, rated 99/100 by N. Martin (Vinous), critics compare it to the dazzling 1989, no less!

Haut-Brion is the most famous of all the Bordeaux growths, having twice been classified as 1er grand cru, in 1855 and again in 1959 (Graves classification). Haut-Brion is both the oldest of the Grands Crus, with more than five centuries (since 1509) behind it, and the most innovative, introducing stainless steel vats as early as 1960 and green harvesting as early as 1980.
Its particular situation within the Bordeaux agglomeration makes it the earliest Premier Cru on the left bank, a clear advantage in less mature vintages. For this reason, Haut-Brion's consistency is a benchmark for the whole of Bordeaux, with the intense bouquet of fresh earth, smoke and pine resin so characteristic of the appellation.
Fortunately, the unique silhouette of its bottle has disrupted the Asian market and has not triggered the same speculative interest there as it has for the other 1er grands crus classés. Haut-Brion is today without question the most qualitative and the least expensive of the premiers.