The venerable Château Belregard-Figeac remains one of the few, exceptionally handcrafted estate wine values left in Bordeaux and we’ve shared this small property’s extraordinary Saint-Émilion Grand Cru since SommSelect’s inception. Whenever we’re able to get our hands on inventory—which, sadly, is only once every 1-2 years—our subscribers’ passionate enthusiasm sends sales through the roof. So, you can bet we jumped up and took notice upon learning that Christophe, the immensely talented son of the Belregard-Figeac clan, had secretly been crafting a limited “reserve” red from his family’s finest vines under the name Château La Fleur Garderose.
Unfortunately, the rest of the wine world also noticed: John Bonne named Garderose one of The Essential Wines of 2017 and I’ve seen the estate’s wines gracing top lists across the country (most recently at Mister Jiu’s in SF, John and Vinny’s in LA, and The Four Horsemen in Brooklyn). You won’t find a single bottle retailing anywhere online and until recently, it had even been impossible to acquire a few bottles for my personal cellar! But, after months of horse-trading and endless emails, we’ve finally succeeded in securing a modest allocation of the truly breathtaking 2015 vintage. Better still, we’re sharing at a price that is sure to leave some jaws on the floor. I suspect this offer won’t last long, so don’t wait to grab some!
[*NOTE: This wine is only available on pre-arrival and will be shipping from our warehouse the week of Monday, September 10th]
When Christophe Pueyo joined his father, Jacques, in the cellar of Château Belregard-Figeac in 2010, there was an almost immediate leap in the quality and purity of the property’s wines. Christophe pushed a complete conversion to organic farming, significantly cut back on filtering, racking, and addition of sulfites in the cellar, while gradually transitioning Belregard-Figeac’s battery of small barriques to much larger, neutral demi-muids and foudres from an elite Austrian cooperage house, Stockinger. Cumulatively, this wave of small and large changes contributed to a quantum leap in quality. Importer Neal Rosenthal—a man who oversees what is arguably the finest portfolio of handcrafted estate Bordeaux houses in the US—says, simply, that the Pueyo family’s wines “exhibit a purity of fruit and vibrant energy that was not present in the past.” I couldn’t agree more. These are some of the most terroir-evocative and classic wines in Saint-Émilion—but the story doesn’t end there!
In 2014 Christophe released his first-ever vintage of Château La Fleur Garderose. While philosophy, farming, élevage, and real estate are more-or-less identical to that of Château Belregard-Figeac, the small cache of Garderose wines bottled each year originate from the very finest fruit from the oldest vines on the Pueyo’s estate, and, what the family considers the top barrels of finished wine. In short, Garderose is Château Belregard-Figeac’s “reserve” wine—it just doesn’t say so on the label. The irony, and, I suspect, the reason why this wine has developed such a rabid following in such a short time, is that it is not priced like a limited reserve bottling from a deeply respected, centuries-old Grand Cru estate. $45 can buy you a variety of mediocre wine around the world, but today it affords you one of the hottest wines in Bordeaux.
In the glass, the 2015 Château La Fleur Garderose leaves no doubt about its cepage and origin: There’s no mistaking this is anything other than extremely high-grade Merlot and Cabernet Franc from five-decade-old vines planted in ancient limestone/sand/gravel soils. Silky, dark fruited, and deeply soulful wines like this are why this same small stretch of vines between Saint-Émilion’s medieval stone walls and Libourne have been a destination for world class wine since the first century. This is what Right Bank Bordeaux is all about: layers of black and red currant, perfectly etched minerality, a long, sonorous finish, and laser-cut tannins that seem created specifically to accommodate bites of marbled Wagyu beef. If enjoying today, please decant for two hours and serve in large Bordeaux stems. Of course, there is no such thing as classic, “drink young” Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, so I hope that anyone who buys a bottle to consume soon will also follow my lead in stocking their cellar with this rare gem. If the past two decades of history in Bordeaux are to be trusted, an outstanding wine like this will only become far more expensive and difficult to obtain in future vintages!
