Chateau Belair-Monange St. Emilion Bordeaux Wine

Chateau Belair Monange St. Emilion

Chateau Belair-Monange St. Emilion, Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Bordeaux wine producer profile, with wine tasting notes, wine ratings, a history of the property, information on wine making and terroir, along with wine tasting reviews. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles

What eventually became known as Chateau Belair and eventually Chateau Belair-Monange was created by Robert de Knollys during the mid to late 1300′s. Like many Bordeaux wine producing properties, it was confiscated during the French Revolution. The Canolle family were able to reclaim the St. Emilion property in 1802. They maintained ownership of Chateau Belair until 1916.

Edouard Dubois Challon, the head of the family that owned the famous, neighboring estate, Chateau Ausone purchased the estate. Due to the attack of by phylloxera and neglect, Chateau Belair had lapsed into a dilapidated condition. The Challon family renovated the estate from the ground up, including the vineyards of Chateau Belair.

As you have read, Belair-Monange spent the first chapter of its life under the name of Chateau Belair. Before the estate was purchased by its current owners, it was managed by Pascal Delbeck. Delbeck, who began in his official capacity at Chateau Belair in 1975, was at the same in charge of Chateau Ausone. During the Delbeck era, many tasters felt that the wines of Chateau Belair as well as those being produced at Chateau Ausone were not up the level that they should have been.

In 2003, following the death of Helyett Dubois-Challon, Pascal Delbeck sold 30% of his shares of Chateau Belair to Ets. Moueix. In 2008, the remaining portion of Chateau Belair was sold to Ets. Moueix. Following the sale, Chateau Belair ceased to exist as the name was quickly changed to Belair-Monage. Belair-Monange was chosen by Christian Moueix in the memory of Anne-Adèle Monange. She was the mother of Jean-Pierre Moueix and grandmother of Christian Moueix. Monange was the first woman from the family to settle in the village of St. Emilion. This took place all the way back in 1931.

Chateu Belair Monange St. Emilion Bordeaux

2008 was the first vintage displaying the new Belair-Monange name on the label after purchasing the estate. It was also the first strong wine produced at the property in decades. Belair Monage increased the size of their St. Emilion vineyards in 2012 following the 2012 Classification of St. Emilion. At that time, Chateau Magdelaine was officially merged into Belair-Monange. Belair-Monange made a major leap in progress when the team from Ets. Moueix began producing the wine in 2008 after taking control of the property from Patrick Delbeck. Starting with conducting more stringent selection in the vineyard and reducing yields, they also began picking later. This allowed for harvesting riper fruit. Another change took place in 2009 when they began using optical sorting. Tasting the wines from Chateau Belair-Monange shows that dividends are already paying off.

Belair-Monange is now much fleshier, richer and more concentrated than it was under the previous owners. A slow plan to replant the vineyards was also recently put in place. The goal is for this to take place over the next two decades.

The 30 acre Bordeaux vineyard of Belair-Monange, located just outside the village of St. Emilion is planted to 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. The soil is a blend of limestone on the terrace and clay with limestone on the slopes, typical of the type of terroir found in that area. The vines are on average, 40 years of age, but some plots date back to the mid 1950′s and a few old vines remain that were planted in 1900! The vines are planted in a density of 6,600 vines per hectare.

Chateau Belair-Monange practices severe winter pruning (10-12 buds) Guyot simple method, regular ploughing ( 4 x /yr), crop thining in early July, deleafing in August (east side first and if needed on the west side just before harvest.
 
For the production of the wine at Chateau Belair-Monange, two laser sorting tables have been in use since 2009. The winery uses thermoregulated concrete vats and since 2004 some stainless tanks, no bleedings, malolactic in tank. The press wine obtained from vertical basket presses is added or not during the élevage.

The wine is aged in barrel in new French oak that ranges from 33% 66%, depending on the vintage for 18 months. This Bordeaux wine is racked 3-4 times per year and is fined using eggwhites in the second winter. Chateau Belair-Monange produces on average, close to 1,500 cases of wine per year.

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