Château Belles-Graves

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Château Belles-Graves offers a beautiful view of the Barbanne valley and the vineyards of Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. It is located on a clayey-gravelly hillside mainly oriented full s....

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(33) Gironde

Château Belles-Graves offers a beautiful view of the Barbanne valley and the vineyards of Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. It is located on a clayey-gravelly hillside mainly facing due south. The beautiful 18th century U-shaped Chartreuse is said to have sheltered Prosper Mérimée, and closer to us, has regularly welcomed a famous member of the family, Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a great wine lover. The vineyard follows the principles of sustainable agriculture, combining an organic approach to treatments. Mechanical soil maintenance is adapted to climatic conditions. The control of yields allowed by Guyot pruning allows a yield of between 45 and 50 hectolitres per hectare. In this spirit and when it is necessary to do so, this pruning is completed by disbudding in spring, and possibly green harvesting in June. Finally, thinning out the leaves during the summer when necessary allows for optimal ripening at harvest time.

Our story

Jean Theallet bought the property in 1938. When he died in 1964, his wife Hermine took over the business and ran it until 1988, when she handed over the reins to her grandson, Xavier Piton. Over the years, it has modernized its production facilities, with a new barrel cellar in 2011 and a new vinification vat room in 2018. He also developed the vineyard to bring it to 17 hectares.

Other little stories

In Belles-Graves, the notion of terroir takes on its full meaning: the estate is a hill, where the vineyard extends over the slopes surrounding the château. With 14 hectares in one piece, we have both the geographical unity, but a superb geological diversity between the top and bottom of the slopes, various sun exposures (northeast, east, south, west to northwest) and this is combined with the Merlot and Cabernet Franc varieties, as well as the age of the plots. A veritable mosaic of micro-terroirs, each of which will bring a very specific piece to the beautiful and complex whole that constitutes the estate's wine. A unique personality, which I strive to highlight with the greatest respect for the potential of each soil. There is no need to do too much, nature does its job well, you have to know how to remain humble and be content to accompany it carefully, from pruning to harvesting. The same applies to vinification, where priority is given to respecting the natural balances present in the grapes, which we want to find in the wine, and only those capable of giving it its aptitude for ageing.