Château Lilian Ladouys
For many years the wines of Château Lilian Ladouys were an unknown to me. I never encountered the wines, and knew little of its story.
This changed a couple of decades ago, long before the property changed hands, and underwent its recent revitalisation. I was confronted by a line up of recent vintages, a mini-vertical no less, at a tasting held in London. The vintages shown were those from the early years of the 21st century; challenging years such as 2004 and 2003 (your take on this latter vintage might vary, especially up here in St Estèphe), but also more interesting years such as 2005. Having said that, no one vintage really stood out above the others. The wines felt distant and isolated, as if they lacked interest in, well, being wine. Overall, they seemed weedy and uninteresting.
What could be the reason for this? A lack of drive and direction on the part of the owners? A complete mismatch of variety to terroir, partnering an expanse of Merlot with gravel soils perhaps, while under-utilising Cabernet Sauvignon, and planting it on clay? The Cabernets don’t like to have their feet too wet, after all. Perhaps it was a combination of these factors? And others?
Whatever the reason, I am sure this state of affairs would have continued, as when domaines get into a rut it can be a gargantuan task to change course. What is often required is a change of owner, somebody willing to enforce progress and improvements; that usually means financial investment, which nowadays means someone from the world of business or finance, whether in individual or corporate form.
In 2008 the château was purchased by Jacky Lorenzetti, making a brave first step into the world of Bordeaux wine. The subsequent revitalisation of the property has lifted the wines far above the style and quality I discovered at that tasting, two decades ago. It was a step that landed well. Before I look at the work undertaken here since his acquisition of the property though, my usual account of the history of the property, which at Lilian Ladouys takes us back to the 16th century.
History
What is known of the history of Château Lilian Ladouys begins in 1564, when the property was in the ownership of Jacques de Bercoyan, a Bordeaux magistrate. By this time the estate was known more simply as La Doys, an obvious precursor to the Ladouys of today, although the origin of this name remains unclear. From Bercoyan the estate passed to the Barre family who acquired it during the 18th century, and who maintained their dominion over these vineyards for 150 years. Under their tutelage the estate grew to an admirable 60 hectares, and gained a reputation for wines of high quality judging by the opinions of the time, which tended to rank the wines of the estate considerably higher than most would place them today. In the inaugural (1850) edition of Cocks et Féret, the Bordeaux bible of the 19th and 20th centuries, it is interesting to see that the authors ranked the estate (pictured below, slightly more recently) among the very best in St Estèphe.
