What’s new Bordeaux 2023 vintage

As is now traditional, En Primeur provides the perfect moment for me to check up on the goings on in Bordeaux, and to share news that may help us all to understand what vineyard or team changes might have an impact on the wines in this vintage and going forward.

I will keep updating this list as I go through the next few weeks of tasting, so bookmark it and keep checking back in. And if you have châteaux changes that you would like me to include here, please email us on hello@janeanson.com

New owners and changes of personnel

• Over at Château Margaux, Corinne Mentzelopoulos handed over the day-to-day reins to her children after 43 years, with son Alexis Leven-Mentzelopoulos heading up the estate and daughter Alexandra Petit-Mentzelopoulos becoming president of the board of directors.
• Château Angelus has now bought 100% of Château de Francs – a long-time co-ownership between Hubert de Boüard and Dominique Hébrard. They will use the grapes in Tempo d’Angelus, as well as keeping a small production of Château de Francs les Cerisiers. Tempo will be bottled under AOC Bordeaux, with all grapes used belonging to Angélus, no purchased grapes.
• Grégoire Bucaille is the new Head of Culture at Domaine Clarence Dillon, including Château Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. Bucaille trained under Pascal Baratié, former head of historical vineyard practices. A graduate of Montpellier agricultural university, he was chef de culture at Château Bouscaut before heading over to Haut-Brion.
• Château Giscours is now 100% owned by the Albada family, after a long and uneasy partnership with Tari family. This resolves 28 years of dispute, and more than 150 individual court cases. The Dutch Albada-Jelgersma family finally took sole control of Château Giscours on December 13, 2023.
• Luxury group Lalique is now the majority owners of Château Lafaurie-Peraguay in Sauternes. The Zurich-based company has acquired a 75% stake for €18 million ($19 million) from its biggest shareholder, Chairman Silvio Denz as of November 2023.
• Stanislas Thierry is now in his second year as development director of Château Kirwan in Margaux (I didn’t include this in last year’s round up, so just want to be fully up to date!). He is also part of the owning family, and returns to France after 10 years in New York working with Vranken-Pommery Champagne.
• The new technical director at Château Fleur Cardinale, Ludivine Chagnon-Chiron, has moved over to the estate after eight years at Château Laroque. Previous experience in Chili, Burgundy, Sancerre. Joining in September 2023, she will oversee final ageing of 2022 and winemaking as of the 2023 vintage.
• William Hancock of Trinity Hill, New Zealand has been at Château Séraphine in Pomerol for part of the 2023 vintage, spending six months from July to December 2023 at the estate while winemaker Charlotte Krajewski took maternity leave, covering harvest and vinification. Son of John Hancock, the legend and pioneer of Gimblett Gravels, this was William’s third time in Bordeaux over the past decade, and was joined in the winemaking and viticulture team at Séraphine by Coen van der Burgt from Holland and Anita Gvasalia from Georgia.
• A sad piece of news for Château Tour des Termes in St Estèphe, which was bought by Irish businessman (expert in renewable energy) Eddie O’Connor in 2023, but he passed away aged 71 in January 2024. Christophe Anney, the former owner is staying on as planned to support the new manager, Julien Brustis, and Anney’s son, daughter and son-in-law, are continuing to manage the estate.
• Cos Labory in St Estèphe has now changed owners to come under the banner of neighbour Château Cos d’Estournel. Certainly an interesting acquisition, one to watch…
• Marco Balsimelli, who worked alongside Eric Boissenot at his consulting form for many years, will have finished his last round of consulting in Bordeaux for the 2023 vintage, as he now heads back to his native Italy to take up the role of head winemaker at Masseto and Ornellaia (a neat swap with Axel Heinz, who arrived in Bordeaux from those two estates in 2023).
• Luc Planty, formerly at Château Giraud as was his father Luc Planty, has bought Chateau de Malle in Sauternes with his wife Clémence. 1855 2ième Cru Classé De Malle, classified as a Historical Monument since 1943, has been pretty much in full abandon over the past few years, with many of the neighbours complaining about the state of the vines, so they have their work cut out for them, but this is great news for the appellation.
• Château Cantelys is now being made by the team at Château du Tertre, having been sold by the Cathiard family.
• Stéphane Derenoncourt has sold his eponymous consultancy, after a period of co-ownership, handing over to his longtime collaborators, Julien Lavenu, Frédéric Massie and Simon Blanchard. Derenoncourt built up this consultancy over 25 years, and will remain with some clients, most clearly Château Pavie-Macquin, an estate he has been involved with since 1990. He will also continue at his own estate of Domaine de l’A with his wife Christine, and continue to develop Clos Stegasta on the island of Tinos in Greece, where he is a partner alongside Alexandre Avatangelo.
• Olivier Bernard has taken over from Laurent Coglombes as president of the Cru Classé de Graves.
• Antoine Granger is now heading up DBR (Lafite) as Commercial France and International Director, following the acquisition of William Fèvre. DBR (Lafite) has also become one of only ten wine businesss in France to be certified B-Corp, as of just a few months ago (so really this should be in the 2024 roundup). This is valid across all their estates, including Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Duhart Milon, Château l’Evangile, Château Rieussec, Château Paradis Casseuil, Domaine d’Aussières, Les Légendes R, Viña Los Vascos, Bodegas Caro and Long Dai in China. B-Corp recognises companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
• A few other sales to note in St Estèphe – Château Plantier Rose sold to Cos d’Estournel and Larose Brana to Château Martin Vertheuil.

New Wines or bottlings

• Subtle but important change at Château Beauséjour under the new team of Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse/Clarins family. They have taken the ‘Héritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse’ off the label, in favour of just Josephine’s name (it now says Château Beauséjour JDL). This change was made of the 2022 vintage, and will be ongoing.
• Château Deyrem Valentin has introduced a a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, bottled under IGP Atlantique (first vintage 2022).
• Pavillon Blanc has introduced 2nd wine, simply called Pavillon Blanc Second Vin. It is produced by grapes that were sold en vrac previously, so the actual composition of Pavillon Blanc will not change.
• Pontet Canet has a new lighter bottle as of the 2022 around 490g, down from 815g in the past, 30 tonnes of CO2 saved just in terms of production.
• Chateau Kirwan is introducing its first vintage of Chardonnay in 2023. There will also be a new Blanc de Noirs wine at Château Durfort Vivens, and new dry whites are under production at Pichon Comtesse, Marquis d’Alesme and Pichon Baron (joining Château Montrose, who launched their white wine with the 2022 vintage).
• In Pessac-Léognan, Château Carbonnieux has launched a new 100% Sémillon.
• Over on the Right Bank, Château Fleur Cardinale is launching a new white wine this year, after two years of experimentation that enabled them to produce white wine under the Intuition de Fleur Cardinale Blanc label.
• Beyond the new wines, there are a few newly-launched estates to look out for – Clos Cabana in Pessac Léognan with its 2nd vintage, Clos Roksam in Pomerol also in its 2nd vintage, and Clos la Colombe in St Emilion, again in its 2nd vintage (although there was no 2022 here, and just a tiny amount of 2021, so this can just about count as an inaugural year).
• Generally speaking, vinifying with stems is increasingly becoming an important part of the Bordeaux winemaking arsenal, so although this is not specific to one vineyard, it is worth noting that it is having an increasing influence on the final bottles – and not just in the high profile proponents such as Château les Carmes Haut-Brion. The Derenoncourt Consultancy is particularly working with its client to help them understand how they can best be used. Châteaux that are using stems this vintage include Château Moulinet in Pomerol, Roc de Montpezat in Castillon, Domaine Baudon and Domaine Simon Blanchard in Montagne St Emilion.

Anniversaries / In Memoriam

• 2024 will see 100 years for the Thienpont family at Vieux Château Certan, making this 2023 the 99 year anniversary!
• 130 years of the Manoncourt family at Château Figeac.
• The Bernard Moueix family also celebrate 100 years in Pomerol, in this case over at Château Taillefer.
• Ten years of Sylvie Cazes and family at Château Chauvin in St Emilion.
• 55th vintage for Jean-Michel Quié at Château Croizet Bages in Pauillac.
• 39th vintage for Hubert de Boüard as a winemaker… so 2024 will be his 40th.
• 2023 was the last full vintage for Yves Hostens Picant of Château Hostens-Picant in St Foy, who died in February 2024.
• 2023 was also the last full vintage for Stephen Adams of Château Fonplégade and Château L’Enclos in Pomerol, who died aged 86 in March 2024.
• The Margaux appellation lost two major figures in the vintage. First Lucien Lurton, patriarch of the Lurton family and father of many well known winemakers including Denis, Sophie, Gonzague, Bérénice and Marie-Laure Lurton, passed away aged 98 early in March 2023, just before last year’s En Primeur, and then just after harvest, in October 2023, Philippe Raoux, iconic owner of Château d’Arsac, died aged 70.
• Philippe de Lur Saluces of Château de Fargues, who was also longtime owner of Château d’Yquem, died in Sauternes in July 2023, aged 89.

Appellation/classification news

• The Saint-Estèphe appellation invested in an anti-hail system in 2023 to protect the entirety of the vineyards.
• Winemakers in AOC Entre deux Mers will be able to bottle a red wine under the same AOC as of 2023, a major change for a region that until now has only been able to bottle white wines (and bottle reds under AOC Bordeaux or Bordeaux Superieur). The first bottles will be released as of January 2025, as they have a long minimum ageing of 24 months and in this 2023 vintage there are 42 growers who will bottle Entre deux Mers Rouge, over 260 ha of vines.
• The main differences for AOC Entre deux Mers Rouge with AOC Bordeaux Superieur are:
  – Density : 4,500 feet minimum per hectare for EDM (BX Sup : 3,300 minimum)
  – Blend : minimum 2 varieties for EDM (single varietal is not allowed)
  – Thermovinification forbidden
  – Ageing: Until January 2 years after the harvest (the vintage 2023 will be sale in January 2025. For Bx Sup : July the year after the harvest)
  – using oak chips is forbidden after the fermentations
• The new Cru Bourgeois ranking will be released in December 2023, so in theory we don’t yet know what ranking these 2023 wines when tasting them during En Primeur – if this ranking is important to you, then it might be worth bearing that in mind. Rumours abound that there will be more Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnels this year, but nothing will be confirmed until the end of the year or early 2025.

New wineries

• New cellars for the 2023 vintage at Château Branaire Ducru, Château Cantenac Brown, Château Cantemerle and at Château Grand Puy Ducasse.
• Over in St Emilion, Château Bélair-Monange also completed its stunning new cellars for this 2023 vintage (see main photo).
• Château Duhart Milon has inaugurated its new wine tourism space, just behind the Pauillac quays, a few years after the new cellars were completed.
• Château Cantemerle has a new cellar and vat room, and a completely restored château with nine rooms.
• Château Dauzac has also a fully restored and renovated guest house with five rooms (as does Cantemerle, with nine rooms).
• 2023 is the first full vintage in the impressive four story gravity-fed cellars at Château Plain Point in Fronsac.

Vineyard changes

• First year organic certified La Clotte, Ausone and the other Vauthier family wine estates.
• Second year of conversion to organics for Château Olivier in Pessac Léognan.
• Château la Rose Perrière in Lussac St Emilion and Château Réaut is Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux both bottle their first organic certified vintage 2023.
• Château Franc Mayne, owned by Thomas Savare since 2018, has its 2nd certified organic vintage in 2023, and has a new label, printed in intaglio, as a nod to the owner’s work in the banknote industry. Thomas Savare has acquired Château Franc-Pourret.
• Château la Loudenne planted 1ha of Chardonnay in 2023, and will be planting Viognier, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Gris in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
• Château Marojallia in Margaux has disappeared and will now be included in the vineyard footprint of Château Marquis du Terme.
• Bernard Magrez has continued to expand his Château La Tour Carnet, 1855 classified estate in AOC Haut-Médoc (a large appellation that gives a lot of flexibility for purchasing land, as the ranking is awarded to estates not to specific land). Among the recent aquisitions are Caronne-Ste-Gemme and Labat, bringing the estate to around 225ha of vines. The average size of the 60 Médoc Cru Classés is 70ha, with Lascombes, Lafite-Rothschild and Lagrange all around 120ha.
• Château Trottevielle, owned by the Casteja family, has moved up 50% in size with the addition of 3ha of a neighbouring estate, also on the St Emilion limestone plateau. Over on the Left Bank, the Castejas have also been acquiring land, purchasing the 52ha cru bourgeois Château Peybaron (in late 2022) from the Bernard family, an estate that is located immediately next to their 1855 Château Lynch Moussas.
• Château Dauzac has planted 0.5ha of Sémillon to create a new cuvée inspired by La Domète, a sweet wine once made on the estate.