Château Lamothe Belair, Bergerac Rouge 2020

This is a perfect example that shows the immense value in searching for wines that are slightly off the beaten track!

This really delicious wine is made by expert award-winning winemaker Stéphane Puyol, who is based in his Saint-Émilion Grand Cru Château, Barberousse. It is full of powerful, dark, ripe black fruit flavours with notes of red cherry and spice. The texture is sublime with a bed of soft tannins and integrated acidity showing the fruit characteristics to their full, while allowing for some of the gorgeous oak nuance to develop. After all, he uses ex-Barberousse Grand Cru barrels for the ageing, so the quality of care for these grapes is right at the top of the tree.

This is a property that Stéphane bought in 1991 and is in a fascinating location: it sits of a hugely important geological formation called the Belair Plateau, which itself extends from the Saint-Émilion appellation. He essentially bought the closest plot of land to his Saint-Émilion Château that he could afford - it just happened to be this stunning estate that shares the same soil and rock formation as the very best in the more famous neighbouring region!

And that's one of the funny things: we all may assume that there is a clear and cut distinction between one region and the next, but in many cases there are greyer lines than we might imagine - this being a case in point. "Bergerac" could easily be applied to many of the Châteaux in Bordeaux, as the name covers the whole area of the Gironde and Dordogne, it is only the political boundaries that have separated Lamothe Belair from Saint-Émilion. 

Now, there are two thoughts: one is that the boundaries serve to act as a quality level based on the innate qualities of a property, its terroir, history and production potential; the other says that while there was historical precedent, the quality shown is so variable that there should be a broadening of the appellation boundaries... Another thought is that, as things stand, there is a huge opportunity to look at those properties outside the fence, so to speak, and gather the value while you can! You can guess where we stand!

This is good wine, no matter the appellation, and it comes from a superb pice of land and is made by a superb wine maker.

Really good stuff!

Stéphane began making wine in Saint-Emilion in 1977 and is certified at the highest tier for sustainability and environmental impact (HVE3). Château Barberousse now has a second wine and the range in Château Lamothe Belair now includes a white and a Rosé in addition to this excellent, Saint-Émilion-styled red.