2021 Château la Grolet Côtes de Bourg Origines

The 2021 Château La Grolet is another outstanding success. It’s a medium-bodied, savoury Bordeaux with mulberry and cherry fruit, inky, powdery tannins and a long, driven close. Although it’s clear that 5-10 years will not weary it, it’s a very good drink now. It will match beautifully with any beef or lamb dish—steak frites, please! In short, this is a super-authentic Bordeaux country-style red that represents wonderful value.

Biodynamic. Peybonhomme’s sister vineyard, Château La Grolet, lies just to the to the south in the Côtes de Bourg. The cooler, gravel-rich terroir makes for a more firmly structured, darker red than this wine’s sibling, although there is always just as much class and value. The blend is 70% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec. The vines are approaching their half century, and crop at 25 hl/ha—similar to the low yields of some of Bordeaux’s most expensive vins de garage! This fermented with indigenous yeasts in concrete vessels. It was bottled without fining or filtration, and with only a little sulphur (the wine saw no other additions).

Château La Grolet
Château La Grolet is a 17th-century manor house sat at the bottom of a valley surrounded by its 50-hectare estate, including 38 hectares of vines, with the remainder being natural grassland, woodland, waterways and water sources. The Hubert family (see Château Peybonhomme-Les-Tours) acquired the estate in 1997 and immediately began its conversion to biodynamics. The steep slopes of this gravel and clay terroir are planted with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Quite unlike the monotonous flats of the Medoc, the Côtes de Bourg is an area of beautiful landscapes and is sometimes referred to as the “little Switzerland of Gironde”. This is a Bordeaux appellation with an open and proud country personality.

Think of Bordeaux as big company stuff? Here it’s a small, family-owned Estate. Large-scale farming practices? Here it’s biodynamic farming of the highest caliber. Overly technical wines? Here it’s minimalist with indigenous yeasts, low or no sulphur and low and often no new oak. Expensive? Just look at the prices!

Both La Grolet and its sister Estate, Château Peybonhomme-les-Tours are run along almost Burgundian lines; ploughed vineyards, low-yields, ripe fruit and low intervention, wild yeast winemaking results in terroir-driven wines that combine texture, freshness and vigour with a much finer tannin profile than that found in many of the region's wines. The gravel-rich terroir here makes for a more firmly structured, virile red than this wine's sibling (Peybonhomme), although there is just as much class and value. These are wines that will appeal greatly to, not only Bordeaux lovers and en-primeur buyers, but lovers of delicious, bona fide and impeccably-made wines full stop.