La Mondotte: A Modern History
It was with the purchase by Comte Joseph-Hubert von Neipperg, in 1971, that the die was cast for the subsequent garagiste reinvention of La Mondotte. There was some treading water for a while first, however, as the focus for the manager Michel Boutet was surely Château Canon-la-Gaffelière. The fruit from La Mondotte was vinified at this rather more prominent estate, and it seems as though La Mondotte functioned as little more than a second label. In 1983 Joseph-Hubert passed control of his estates onto one of his eight children, the chosen son being Stephan von Neipperg. Educated in Germany, where the noble Neipperg family hail from, as well as Paris and Montpellier, Stephan was content to move to St Emilion to manage the family estates. It was Stephan who would lift La Mondotte from this ignominious fate to its current level of fame.
After a couple of years learning the ropes, Stephan found himself managing a small portfolio of very handsome properties. The most prestigious was surely Château Canon-la-Gaffelière, which lies south of St Emilion, on the road that climbs up towards the town. Château La Mondotte, meanwhile, was up on the plateau a short distance to the east. The vineyards were quite distinct from those of Stephan’s other properties, including Château Canon-la-Gaffelière, nevertheless as already noted the fruit was brought down from the vineyards to the Château Canon-la-Gaffelière estate, where it was vinified. Château La Mondotte wasn’t a property upon which Stephan lavished a huge amount of attention, as he naturally directed much of his efforts towards potentially more lucrative concerns, especially Château Canon-la-Gaffelière. As a consequence, perhaps, up until the mid-1990s the estate remained something of an afterthought. And as such it didn’t make much sense for Stephan to continue on in this way; he submitted an application for the INAO to amalgamate the two estates, absorbing the tiny vineyard of Château La Mondotte into the larger and better known Château Canon-la-Gaffelière.
The response from the INAO was clear: Non!
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