Château Valandraud, or Château de Valandraud, is

Bordeaux wine Bordeaux wine ( oc, vin de Bordèu, french: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the ...

producer situated in the

Saint-Émilion Saint-Émilion (; Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. In 2016, it had a population of 1,938. In the heart of the country of ''Libournais'' (the area around Libourne), i ...

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical boun ...

, promoted to ''Premier Grand Cru Classé'' in the 2012 Classification of Saint-Emilion wine. The

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

is located on the Right Bank of France’s

Bordeaux wine region The wine regions of Bordeaux are a large number of wine growing areas, differing widely in size and sometimes overlapping, which lie within the overarching wine region of Bordeaux, centred on the city of Bordeaux and covering the whole area of the ...

in the commune of Saint-Émilion. The winery also produces the

second wine Second wine or second label (French: ''Second vin'') is a term commonly associated with Bordeaux wine to refer to a second label wine made from '' cuvee'' not selected for use in the ''Grand vin'' or first label. In some cases a third wine or ev ...

s, Virginie de Valandraud and 3 de Valandraud, and the Kosher wine Château Valandraud Kosher.

History

In 1989 Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle Andraud bought a plot in Saint-Émilion near

Château Pavie-Macquin Château Pavie-Macquin is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked ''Premier grand cru classé B'' in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine. The winery is one of three Pavie estates, along with Château Pavie and Château P ...

. Further plots in the region were acquired over the years, in locations such as

Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens ( Languedocien: ''Sent Sulpici de Faleirens'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is one of eight municipalities forming the jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion, which i ...

and Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse, and a former garage to be used as a winery, releasing the first vintage in 1991 of 1,500 bottles priced at

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

13. Exemplified as a typical ''"microchâteau"'',winepros.com.au. Thunevin is closely associated with the ''"garagiste"'' movement, and the wine is described as the pioneer ''"Vin de garage"''. In 1995, Valandraud was given a better rating by Robert Parker than

Château Pétrus Pétrus is a Bordeaux, France, wine estate located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. A small estate of just , it produces a red wine entirely from Merlot grapes (since the end of 2010), and produces no s ...

, and by 1997 the Valandraud bottle price was set at €91. The 2005 vintage was set at €165. The Thunevins have since taken on several projects, including the first " garage wine"' of

Médoc The Médoc (; oc, label= Gascon, Medòc ) is a region of France, well known as a wine growing region, located in the ''département'' of Gironde, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary, north of Bordeaux. Its name comes from ''(Pagus) Medull ...

, Marojallia, and acting as ''négociant'' distributor for several estates from Bordeaux,

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; oc, Lengadòc-Rosselhon ; ca, Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and b ...

and elsewhere, including

Château Ausone Château Ausone is a Bordeaux wine from Saint-Émilion appellation, previously ranked Premier Grand Cru Classé (A) in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine but does not hold this rank after the 2022 reclassification. The winery is located ...

, Gracia, Harlan Estate and Dominio de Pingus. Jean-Luc Thunevin is among the

wine personalities Instead of common selection criteria for the entire list, notability of people involved should be checked against the description of each sector. Sectors are arranged from cultivation through processing, starting from vineyards to consumption ad ...

satirised next to Robert Parker in the 2010 ''bande dessinée'' comic book, '' Robert Parker: Les Sept Pêchés capiteux''.Kakaviatos, Panos, ''Decanter.com'' (October 12, 2010)
Robert Parker 'honoured' by merciless cartoon satire
/ref>

Production

The vineyard area currently extends , with the grape varieties composed of 65% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5%

Malbec Malbec () is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. In France, plantations of Malbec are n ...

. The annual production of the ''Grand Vin'' is typically 15,000 to 20,000 bottles. Other labels produced include the Virginie de Valandraud, 3 de Valandraud, Château Valandraud Kosher, Blanc de Valandraud N° 1 and N° 2, Bad Boy, and the declassified non-vintage ''

vin de table Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not forti ...

'' L’Interdit de V……d which was not allowed by INAO to vintage date the 2000 harvest or be designated as a Saint-Émillion wine.

References

External links

Ets. Thunevin official site

Jean-Luc Thunevin's Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valandraud, Chateau Bordeaux wine producers