Benoit Trocard leaves Clos Dubreuil

Surprising news from Bordeaux this week, with the announcement that Benoit Trocard is leaving Clos Dubreuil, the vineyard that he and his father took over in 2002, and built up to become Grand Cru Classé.

American Ralph Eads has been investor and co-owner since 2005, becoming majority shareholder in 2007, overseeing  an expansion of a property has seen a vertical rise in consciousness over the past decade. He has been unquestionably helped in this by the imagination and talent of Trocard – among the first winemakers in St Emilion, for example, to introduce a Chardonnay wine bottled as a Vin de France, a move that has been repeated by several other local estates since. In a recent article I wrote that Trocard had ‘turned Clos Dubreuil into a name that has slowly but surely acquired cult status’.

When Jean Louis Trocard bought Clos Dubreuil, located on the limestone plateau of St Emilion in the village of Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes, it was a walled ‘clos’ vineyard of just 1.45ha that had been farmed by Louis Mitjavile. It has since been enlarged progressively from the original plots, growing to 7.18ha today. In May 2023, the estate will further expand with the opening an upscale guest house called Maison Dubreuil, in addition to the existing wine bar and small restaurant.

The estate will now be headed up by Alain Raynaud, a well known consultant in the region and president of the Grand Cercle des Vins de Bordeaux since 2002, a group that he founded almost a decade after leaving the role of president of the Union des Grands Crus Classés de Bordeaux in 1994.

‘We are delighted to welcome Alain Raynaud to Clos Dubreuil,’ said Eads in a press release. ‘His experience and expertise make him the perfect person to take the estate to the next level and to reinforce our commitment to making the best wines possible’. For his part, Raynaud says, ‘Clos Dubreuil is a tremendous opportunity for me to make the most of my long experience of running estates and consulting. This estate has exceptional terroir and the benefits of a recently-renovated high performance cellar’.

Benoît Trocard will be leaving his position as winemaker and director, with Eads calling him ‘a remarkable winemaker whose efforts allowed us to be promoted to Grand Cru Classé. We wish him great success in his future projects’.

Trocard’s next plans are as yet unclear, with his part-ownership of the estate potentially complicating the hand over.

The brand Clos Dubreuil Chardonnay will remain with the property, along with the three other wines in the range.