Château Mangot
Château Mangot is ancient; this much is obvious when stepping inside the oldest sections of the cellars, hewn directly from St Emilion’s limestone, as they include pens for livestock as well as sleeping quarters for the property’s human inhabitants, man and his valuable animals sleeping close to one another. The current proprietors tell me this oldest part of the building dates to the 14th century. It reminded me very much of the ancient tunnels beneath Château de Brézé, not far from Saumur, where troglodytic living quarters, animal pens and grape presses are all carved from the same limestone bedrock. These tunnels date to the same era, so I can well believe these cellars are 700 years old.
The modern story of the estate is, by contrast, one of rapidly achieved modernity, a property invigorated by the arrival of the Todeschini family, who introduced biodynamic viticulture in the vineyard, and who now preside over a cellar bristling with Tava amphorae alongside rows of new oak barrels. In this profile of Château Mangot I explore all these aspects of the domaine in full, but I begin as always with a detailed history of the estate.
Origins
The earliest records concerning the property date to 1515, when it was inhabited by Guilhem Dubreuil (1480 – 1540) and his wife Madeleine Château, who he had married five years earlier. They had seven children, of whom two remained involved with the property, these being the eldest son Pierre Dubreuil (1515 – 1573) and his younger brother Jean.
