Chateau de la Dauphine, Fronsac
Once owned by the Moueix family, they sold in 2001 to Jean Halley, wanting to concentrate on their Pomerol and Saint Emilion holdings. I wonder sometimes if they regret this decision, as the Halleys have shown just what exceptional terroir this estate has, teased out by a major investment in the vineyard and cellars.
Investments of over 10 million euros have resulted in a complete restoration of the chateau and chais, replanting and restructuring of the vineyard and vineyard processes, careful lowering of yields to increase concentration in the berries, new equipment to ensure minimal disturbance of the grapes, the installation of a gravity-based system with a rotating walkway to ensure gentle and consistent filling of the tanks, and the introduction of a second wine.
Denis Dubourdieu has worked with the chateau as consultant oenologist for the past five years, alongside 32 year old Guillaume Halley – Jean Halley’s son and now La Dauphine’s owner and director.
Perhaps because Guillaume also runs a successful franchise of the Champion supermarket chain, in the upmarket Bordeaux suburb of Cauderan, he comes out with distinctly un-Bordeaux comments such as, ‘The majority of Bordeaux wine growers have still not grasped the fact that sitting in the vines does not sell wine. They think it’s not their job to promote their wine.’
He has set about proving that making a wine that sells is a top priority – firstly by a fairly routine things such as simplifying the label and cutting down the number of negociants that sell it to ensure greater commitment from those that remain. But also by more radical means, most notably by merging his Canon Fronsac property (formerly known as Canon de Brem) into the better known Fronsac appellation, meaning greater quantities of the popular La Dauphine, and the creation of a second wine to ensure that only the best grapes of each estate goes into La Dauphine. ‘We want to simplify our message for the consumer, and ensure that it’s our brand that is paramount,’ said Halley at the time. It is still a relatively small estate – 19 hectares in total, making 150,000 bottles per year, but the new structure has meant Halley can concentrate entirely on building up La Dauphine.
Recently the success of this strategy has been proved, when the 2001 vintage beat two Bordeaux First Growths in a blind tasting organised by Cellier, a magazine published by Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ).
Judged by a team of sommeliers and wine critics, this was a blind tasting (held in the autumn 2008 edition) of 30 Bordeaux wines from across the region, with some of the most prestigious wines of Pauillac, Saint Julien, Pomerol and Margaux. Prices of the bottles ranged from $30 right up to $900 for Chateau Latour and Chateau Margaux.
The results revealed that Chateau de La Dauphine just whiskered past Chateau Latour... by a tenth of a point. Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau le Tertre Roteboeuf came at the top of the table, proving that the tasters were correctly identifying quality.
This is a property that has been quietly working away at quality, and is getting the recognition that it deserves.
Chateau de la Dauphine
33126 Fronsac
05 57 54 06 61
contact@chateau-dauphine.com