Château La Croizille
Bordeaux is known for its striking architecture in all styles, modern and old. With the classicism of an 18th-century château such as Château Pichon-Baron, the futuristic modernism of Château Faugères, and the blending of the traditional and the nouveau as at Château Pédesclaux or Château La Dominique, there is something for everyone.
Even so, locals and visitors alike were not prepared for what was unveiled atop the slopes of St-Laurent-des-Combes, on the eastern plateau of the St Emilion appellation, back in 2012. Towering above the vines there grew an ultra-modern box-shaped winery, complete with top-floor tasting room, perched atop steel stilts. The lower section was wrapped in sculpted granite-grey rock, while the upper sections were painted white and orange. Well, most people call it orange. Being intimately familiar with the British Leyland colours of the 1970s I would like to specify it is blaze orange, but I do wonder whether this might just be a little over-specific for most readers.
Not for those who have a blaze orange MGB Roadster or Mini Cooper S tucked away in the garage though, I wager.
The erection of these cellars in the zone awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1999 naturally caused some controversy. After all, what is given by UNESCO, can also be taken away by UNESCO (just ask Liverpool and Dresden). Local planning laws were reputably overhauled as a result. But not to worry. St Emilion remains one of the few vineyard regions to have this privileged status (alongside the Loire Valley, Champagne and Burgundy) and the cellars of Château La Croizille still tower above the vines of St-Laurent-des-Combes.
