Château Troplong-Mondot: Georges Thienpont
By the time the 1922 Cocks et Féret was published Georges Thienpont was listed as the proprietor (although you will only find his name if you read the errata – otherwise Lasséverie is listed – do I need to say any more about the medium of print?) and the output was still a handsome 120 tonneaux. Today a famous name in the region, Thienpont was then less well known. The family only really made their mark a few years later with the acquisition of Vieux-Château-Certan in Pomerol, an estate that has remained with Georges’ descendants ever since.
Although the proprietor of this grand Pomerol estate, which I would comfortably rank in the upper echelons of the appellation, it appears Georges Thienpont’s heart really lay at Château Troplong-Mondot, as this was where he would stay when visiting the region. I suspect he was influenced by more than just the quality of the wine, as the views provided by Château Troplong-Mondot’s commanding hilltop location certainly hold some appeal. Again looking back to the words of Georges Thienpont, as reported by Bernard Ginestet, writing in St Emilion (Jacques Legrand SA, 1988), Georges explained how he saw his two domaines.
“Look, I bought Troplong-Mondot for pleasure. But Vieux Château Certan is for business, don’t you see?”
Sadly for Georges Thienpont there was no turn around in his fortunes, and by 1936 the ongoing economic malaise forced him to sell one of his assets. As the St Emilion estate was better known than the one in Pomerol, it was likely to provide a more worthwhile return, and so it was Château Troplong-Mondot that had to go under the hammer. The buyer was Alexandre Valette, a wine merchant from St-Ouen near Paris.
