Château Batailley
In his time Sherlock Holmes solved many mysteries, some peculiar, some remarkably straightforward. It was after all Holmes – or at least his creator, Conan Doyle – who said in The Sign of the Four (published 1890) that “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” By applying such simple logic Holmes tracks down stolen plans to a new design of submarine in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (published 1912), locates the missing soldier Godfrey Emsworth in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier (published 1926) and identifies the thief in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet (published 1892).
In the latter of these three stories, Holmes makes a thorough examination of footprints in the snow near the scene of the crime. What, I wonder, would Holmes have made of the footprints left around Château Batailley one crisp and cold afternoon more than a few years ago? The owner wore a size 10 shoe, but curiously perhaps had only one leg, his left. Had this one-legged criminal hopped through the château, looking for secret documents and valuable coronets to steal? Probably not; I am sure Holmes would have immediately deduced that the explanation was much more straightforward. The owner of said shoe, who might just go by the name of Winedoctor, had parked his hire car alongside the vines that sit opposite the château. Stepping from his hire car his left foot had sunk more than nine inches into a bank of soft, rain-sodden mud, which immediately enveloped his boot and the bottom of his trousers.
These were not the footprints of a master criminal; just an idiot who did not look where he was putting his feet.
Mystery solved. Time to get back to the violin and the opium.
It’s a fair cop; Holmes would have been spot on with his deduction. Some say you should make your mark in life. Well, that day I certainly made my mark on Château Batailley. And Château Talbot. And Château Lafon-Rochet. And indeed any other château I may have had cause to visit during the rest of the day. And so I learnt two valuable lessons on this visit to Château Batailley; never trust a muddy vineyard, and always wear sturdy boots to Bordeaux. But enough of my muddy adventures; let us look instead at the focus of my visit that day, Château Batailley. The only classified property in Pauillac to have been divided since it was ranked in the 1855 Classification of the Médoc and to have both parts retain their classification, this is a property which benefits from fine terroir and a century of stable ownership in the hands of the Castéja family. Despite this, for many years the estate flew under the radar, the wines rather understated versions of what they might have been. It is really only in the past couple of decades that quality has climbed to the point that these wines became essential additions to the cellar.
In this profile I will explore what these recent developments were; first though, as is customary, I begin in familiar fashion, with some history. We begin in the pre-division era, before the vineyards were divided between this estate and neighbouring Château Haut-Batailley.
