Château Troplong-Mondot
Château Troplong-Mondot’s recent story is one of ascendancy, decline and recovery.
First came the ascent, one generation taking the reins and turning a very adequate family business into a highly successful venture. The work was rewarded with elevation in the 2006 reclassification of St Emilion, promotion from grand cru classé to premier grand cru classé, before the collapse of said system rendered all the leading estates without any valid ranking at all. It was a serious affair for the proprietors of Château Troplong-Mondot, which was promoted, then effectively demoted again with the collapse, before finally being reinstalled again in a temporary fix.
At the time, the classification was only one source of controversy that swirled around Château Troplong-Mondot; another was the style of the wine being produced. This was – in my eyes, at least – the decline. During this era, particularly so in the 2009 and 2010 vintages, the winemaking team pushed the wine to its absolute limits (and, some might say, beyond it). These vintages were an inky jet-black hue in the glass, they carried significant levels of extraction, and more notably they possessed very high levels of alcohol, well above 15% in several vintages. Château Troplong-Mondot became a poster child for modern, over-extracted, over-worked St Emilion. These developments were, unsurprisingly, not to everybody’s taste.
This era was also tinged with sadness, because within only a couple of years of promotion in the 2012 St Emilion classification (which, thankfully, did not collapse) one half of the husband-and-wife team who propelled the estate to stardom passed away, having lost a battle with cancer at too young an age. The passing of Christine Valette left the estate in the hands of her husband, the charming Xavier Pariente. Rumours that the estate might be for sale began circulating almost immediately, although in fact he remained at the helm for three years before he eventually sold up.
The new owners who took the property off his hands was SCOR SE, yet another insurance company having recognised the financial benefits of diversification into premium, highly priced wine. Thankfully they put the old over-worked style to bed, having had the good sense to draft in Aymeric de Gironde – who had turned thanks around Cos d’Estournel, another property which had lost its way – to take on the management of the estate. And thus came the recovery; thankfully, as a result of this change in direction, today the wine is much improved. Before we delve into this recent revival in more detail though, it is time to first establish a little more context, with some history as well as some detail on the vineyards and vinifications.
