Château Jean Faure

Is there a closer connection imaginable than that between soil and grape plant? The soil feeds the plant, the plant feeds the soil. And isn’t it wonderful when that bond produces beautiful, ripe grapes and ultimately a fantastic glass of wine? At Château Jean Faure, grand cru classé in Saint-Émilion, you have such an intensely happy marriage between clay and cabernet franc.

The company, which owns 18 hectares of contiguous vineyards, is located close to Pomerol and in the vicinity of greats such as Cheval Blanc and La Dominique. The soil has – exceptionally for the region – a subsoil of fertile clay that extends up to 1 metre deep. And that is where cabernet franc in particular draws an incredible amount of energy, as they put it at Jean Faure itself. ‘They’, that is, owners Anne and Olivier Decelle, the latter of whom started his career in, among other things, the sale of frozen food, and technical director Marie-Laure Latorre, who comes from the recruitment business. The wine from this château therefore contains an unusually high proportion of cabernet franc: preferably more than 50%. In addition, merlot and a small portion of malbec are planted.

It almost goes without saying that organic farming is practiced and that the company is in the process of switching to biodynamic. The cellar is worked with the same care and attention: fermentation of whole bunches, blending at the start of the maturation process, maturation in a combination of small and large wooden barrels and concrete tanks, no added sulphites.

After the takeover in 2004, the energetic Decelle and Latorre conjured up a sparkling new company from a château that was declassified in 1985 and had been struggling ever since. In 2012, it regained the status of grand cru classé. That boundless energy of soil, vine and man also speaks from the wine. It is pure and fresh: wine that’s alive…