Jonathan Maltus: Single Vineyard Wines
Of all Jonathan’ single-vineyard wines, it is without doubt Le Dôme that is the best known, perhaps as it rode the garagiste wave during the late 1990s. Today, however, there are other wines in the portfolio that challenge it, in terms of quality at least, if perhaps not in their status as ‘wine icons’. This section of my profile of Jonathan Maltus and his wines deals principally with Le Dôme, but also looks at a more recent addition to his portfolio, Vieux Château Mazerat, the story of which is certainly intertwined with that of Le Dôme.
Before beginning, one point of interest which may aid us in our journey through the portfolio, relates to the Maltus nomenclature; the blended wines – Château Teyssier and Château Laforge (which I discuss in the next instalment of this profile) are denoted by the term château, the single-vineyard wines (Le Dôme, Le Carré, Les Astéries and so on) are not. The only exception to this rule is the second wine discussed here, Vieux Château Mazerat.
Le Dôme
Having purchased Château Teyssier in 1994 Jonathan Maltus had equipped himself with a pretty château in a good appellation although perhaps not on the grandest terroir, Vignonet being located on the sandy plains of St Emilion. Nevertheless he had the opportunity to make good quality wine in potentially large volumes. He was conscious, however, that the rather modest profits from producing such a wine would never allow him to develop and improve the estate in the way that he wished. Looking around to what others were doing in St Emilion at the time, Jonathan witnessed the birth of the garagiste movement, a phenomenon that resulted from the work of Jean-Luc Thunevin who was making a new wine, Valandraud, in a backstreet garage in the centre of St Emilion.
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