Château Tertre-Roteboeuf
Over the years, the reputation of some estates have waxed and waned. Some underperform and then, perhaps thanks to new investment or a new owner, things begin to change. Some do the opposite, once great estates fading over time due to misconstrued ideas on viticulture or vinification. Just occasionally, though, an estate leaps out of nowhere, rising to stardom in a fashion that can only be described as meteor-like. Château Tertre-Roteboeuf is one such estate. That it did so was down to the work of one man, François Mitjavile. In Grands Vins (University of California Press, 1995), just a decade after Mitjavile’s breakthrough vintage, Clive Coates wrote of the estate, “[w]ho’d heard of it ten years ago? Who hasn’t heard of it today?” It is a good indicator of how François Mitjavile and Tertre-Roteboeuf burst onto the wine scene in the mid-1980s. Here in this profile I give my account of the history of Château Tertre-Roteboeuf, explain the origins of the name, which has nothing to do with roast beef (rôte boeuf), and having met the man in person give some indication of exactly what makes Francois Mitjavile, a remarkable vigneron-philosopher, tick.
Château Tertre-Roteboeuf: A History
The history of Château Tertre-Roteboeuf is really the history of François Mitjavile. The domaine itself, originally named simply Château Tertre, was originally in the possession of his wife, Miloute, and her family, and before the Mitjavile era it was not an estate of great repute. Prior to his taking the reins the small vineyard, located in Saint Laurent des Combes, south and east of the town of St Emilion itself, had been managed by her father. Following his death in 1961 the estate was taken on by Miloute’s cousins, who owned nearby Château Bellefont-Belcier, and they made the wine at their own property. The family domaine was, frankly, going nowhere, the cellars deserted, the vats lying empty.
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