Chateau Valandraud Saint Emilion 750ml

$559.99 $484.99 price per bottle

Château Valandraud is the final achievement of an enormous sum of extremely hard, meticulous work on the part of a couple with a passion for wine, Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle Andraud. Having become highly successful wine merchants in the Saint-Emilion area, their burning ambition was to own their own vineyard and make their own wine. Little by little, they bought up several parcels of vines. The name of the growth is both geographical (Val for Vale of Fongaban) and sentimental (Andraud being Murielle's name). That was how Château Valandraud came on being. Wine maker notes The harvest is picked in only two days but it is done "in the family" using some thirty people who are friends as well as employees, even customers with a passion for wine lend a hand. A first selection is done in the vineyard to make sure only fully ripe grapes are picked. Once they arrive at M Thunevin's minute winemaking facilities, the bunches are again selected on a sorting table before being stemmed manually. The next stage consists of bursting the grapes in a hand-crusher. The must obtained, which is very rich and pure, is then run off by "muscular" gravity into the oak fermentation vasts. Once the alcoholic fermentation is over, the "nouvelle cuvée" of Valandraud is drained into new oak barrels for the malolactic fermentation. Although this rare way of working is expensive and also rather a dangerous exercice, M Thunevin does not hesitate to take the risk in order to perfect his wine.
Producer Bordeaux ’Bad Boy’ Jean-Luc Thunevin, and his wife Murielle Andraud, bought their first plot of unclassified Bordeaux vines in 1989, in Saint-Emillion. Working against the grain, Thunevin aimed for low yields and in 1991 released his first vintage of Chateau Valandraud, one of the world’s first ”garage wines”. In 1995, Chateau Valandraud wine won a 95 rating from Parker, and soon, its wines were out-pricing established Bordeaux classified growths. Coined a ”bad boy” and a ”black sheep” by Parker, Thunevin crumbled the clos in Bordeaux, home to a very traditional practice. He began as an off-the-grid innovator, who modeled an alternative for the aspiring garagiste vintner. A self-coined ”modern winemaker”, Jean-Luc now produces six different wines at Chateau Valandraud, but he’s also a Bordeaux negociant for Jean-Luc Thunevin Selections. Preferring natural wine production, Jean-Luc favors commitments over labels, such as using no herbicides or insecticides, and employing cover crops. His entire company policy is based on the environment, including social policies and high-standard working conditions for employees.