CHATEAU BELLEVUE

Walking the vineyards of Bellevue, you can still see the remains of the original Roman plantings; the place reeks of history. A little further down the timeline (the 17th Century, to be precise), we encounter the Fief de Bellevue renaming the estate after himself (well, you would, wouldn’t you?) and creating the beginnings of the estate we have today.

From the 2000 vintage onwards, Bordeaux aces Nicolas Theinpont and Stéphane Derenoncourt were brought in to up the ante, and they did just that, illustrating very quickly Bellevue's potential for greatness. In 2007, the de Boüard family, owners of Château Angélus, purchased a 50% stake, a move that generated a top-to-bottom revamp of the estate.

The operation is ultra-hands-on, with hand harvesting followed by four rounds of sorting. Each block is fermented separately, 40% in barrel, and all of it is aged in new French oak. The 5.9 hectares of clay and limestone soils carry one of the highest percentages of Merlot vines in Saint-Émilion – 98% – with the remaining 2% in Cabernet Franc.