In last October Arvid Rosengren, Best Sommelier of the World 2016, discovered with emotion Château Croix de Labrie and its mosaic of terroirs in its vineyard kept like a garden by Axelle and Pierre Courdurié, wine growers and owners of this grand Saint-Emilion Grand Cru wine.
“Garage wine” par excellence–an expression that was humoristically used in the early 90s for these Saint-Emilion grand wines produced in small quantities “in a garage rather than a cellar”–Château Croix de Labrie probably is the greatest of the most prestigious small estates of the appellation.
Its vineyard farmed sustainably and entirely worked by Axelle from pruning to harvest, is a small mosaic of Merlot with some rows of Cabernet, close to Pavie, on clay and limestone terroirs with brown sands and ferruginous sandstone (locally called ‘crasse de fer’). Work of the soils, horse-drawn ploughing in some plots and Double Guyot pruning to get a perfectly balanced load per vine stock, thinning out of the leaves, green harvest and new thinning out to gain maturity are examples of the extremely precise work Axelle does in what she calls her ‘vine garden’. The perfectly ripe grapes harvested and sorted by hand are brought by gravity in small tanks adapted to the size of the plots for a very selective vinification. The malolactic fermentations are undertaken in new French oak barrels just before the 18-month elevage. Pierre Courdurié likes to say his estate is run like the small domains in Burgundy.
And at Croix de Labrie, they make not one but three grand wines! And wines with a feminine touch as it is Axelle, the alchemist of the domain, with the help of Michel Rolland’s team, who tries to express the depth and richness of the terroirs through her wines. With the grapes from the plots of Badon near Pavie and the micro plots of Saint-Christophe de Bardes she makes the jewel of the domain: Château Croix de Labrie Grand Cru, 100 % Merlot, made by maximum 6,000 bottles a year. La Chapelle de Labrie (4,000 bottles a year) stems from the plots of Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens on gravelly clay-limestone soils. Some Cabernet Franc is added to a majority of Merlot. Same grape varieties on micro plots for Hauts de Croix de Labrie, on a terroir of gravels, with approximately 6,000 bottles a year.
Arvid Rosengren was seduced by these exceptional micro cuvées perfect for connoisseurs or the finest restaurants all over the world and says: “I found a particular connection with the 2014 vintage both in Chapelle de Labrie and Croix de Labrie. Both wines were incredibly well-balanced, not showing too much oak. They are really complex and show the difference of the soil structure and the terroirs of those vineyards. The 2012s of both wines were lighter but also beautiful wines from an under-aided vintage.
And finally I think Croix de Labrie Stella Solare, a 2015 white Bordeaux produced by six barrels, was really compelling. Definitely a wine that needs a little bit of ageing to really show itself. But a really well-balanced and elegant style of white Bordeaux from an unusual place.”
“This is a producer I knew nothing about and it was really interesting to see their approach on making terroir-driven wines in Saint-Emilion. Axelle and Pierre do all the right things, working extremely carefully in the vineyards, even with horses in tightly planted vineyards”, Arvid Rosengren comments.
Valérie Massot-Germe
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