Bordeaux 2008 at Ten Years: St Estèphe
Looking back to St Estèphe in 2008 is almost like looking back to another time. In the course of the ten years that have since passed, estates have been bought and sold, while famous names drifted onto the local wine scene, and several have drifted away once more. At Château Montrose, acquired by Martin and Olivier Bouygues as recently as 2006, I knocked on the door in April 2009 only to be greeted by Jean-Bernard Delmas, associated for many decades with Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion. Today the Bouygues brothers remain at the helm, although Jean-Bernard has finally decided to take retirement seriously, and the role of manager now falls to Hervé Berland, previously of Château Mouton-Rothschild. At Château Lafon-Rochet, another new kid on the block was Basile Tesseron, drafted in at short notice by his father to manage the 2007 harvest, making 2008 only his second vintage. He is still here today, in 2018, and doing good things too.
Other names have long since moved on though. At Château Cos d’Estournel, the construction of the new cellars, complete with those now famous laser-welded milk vats, had not long been completed. The man in charge was Bruno Prats, who at the time was set to launch the estate into a long modernista phase, the wines marked by high alcohol and extraction. Happily, it was not until the 2009 vintage that this new style became apparent, a bruiser of wine which opened the gates to a run of vintages rich in extracted tannin and alcohol. Bruno was replaced by Aymeric de Gironde long ago, who reined the style back in, but today he too has left to take the reins at Château Troplong-Mondot. The management of the estate today falls to Dominique Arangoits, and Michel Reybier himself, and last time I visited Michel’s son also had a presence. Is he set to take on a wider role here, I wonder?
