Four from Château Pontet Labrie, 2021
Since his purchase of Château Teyssier back in 1994 Jonathan Maltus (pictured) has gone from being a St Emilion outsider to one of the key figures in this most famous of Bordeaux appellations. Working with his right-hand man, winemaker Neal Whyte, he developed a strong portfolio of wines which run from entry-level Bordeaux blends under the Pezat label, through the value and volume of Château Teyssier, to the exalted single-vineyard wines led by Le Dôme (and I have not even mentioned his vineyards in Australia and California). Today Le Dôme is surely the appellation’s most famed and yet inevitably unclassified cuvée; the only conceivable competition for this title (that I can think of, anyway) is Château Tertre-Roteboeuf.
An appointment with Jonathan to taste his single-vineyard wines, in particular Le Carré and Les Astéries, and in more recent vintages Pontet Labrie, has long been an essential component of any trip to Bordeaux. So it came as a surprise to see the first two of this trio had disappeared when I recently got to grips with the vintage in my 2020 Bordeaux primeurs report. This was purportedly a consequence of the vintage’s rampant botrytis, but I can’t help feeling it heralds a reorganisation of the range of wines in anticipation of (fingers crossed) the promotion of Le Dôme in the forthcoming revision of the St Emilion classification, due in 2022. We shall see.
One wine that won’t be disappearing any time soon, though, is Château Pontet Labrie. Sourced from vines on clay and limestone soils in the lieu-dit of Grand Pontet, at the top of the town of St Emilion, this cuvée was added to the portfolio as recently as the 2015 vintage. The fruit was originally destined for the blend sold as Château Laforge, but Jonathan and Neal recognised the site’s potential and the new cuvée was created. The vinification is pretty much the same across the entire portfolio, so this is fermented in cuve followed by maturation in barrel, using 80% new oak. It was first presented as a barrel sample in early 2016, under the proposed name of Le Pontet. But someone else in Bordeaux objected to this choice (can’t think who, can you?) and thus Château Pontet Labrie was born. The wine is sold exclusively through Club Pontet Labrie, essentially an upmarket wine club run by UK merchant Honest Grapes which is focused on just this one estate. And thus while Le Carré and Les Astéries might disappear (whether it is temporary or permanent, we shall see), Château Pontet Labrie’s position here is almost guaranteed.
