On the right bank of Bordeaux, Château Croix de Labrie produces a grand cru and an entry-level wine. Both are very convincing.
No, it is not essential to have been from Bordeaux for ten generations, to have a 50-room château, to make wine in Bordeaux. The world has changed. You can come from the Landes, this is the case for oenologist Axelle Courdurié. You can also be from Cantal, like her husband, Pierre. The two acquired a 5.79 hectare estate a little over twenty years ago whose vines are shared between Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes and Saint-Sulpice and Badon, all in the Saint-Émilion Grand Cru appellation. She stays in the vineyard and the cellar, makes the wine, he drives his car or gets on the plane to go sell it. They first signed what was then called a garage wine. A great success which made them known.
Even if, today, everything is not rosy in Bordeaux, it is not necessary to have a gloomy and declining vision of the future of the sector. Thus, Pierre Courdurié is among the happy people of Bordeaux, that is to say those who continue to find buyers for their wine at a good price, despite the vagaries of the market. There are not that many of them.
SDP
An unbeatable price of €9
“Everything has been sold, but we are only producing 15 000 bottles ! recognizes the owner. These are organic wines, produced according to the criteria of the biodynamic but without the label. In fact, the corks that we use, and which we are very happy with because they never harm the quality of the wine, are not accepted by Demeter. But I prefer a satisfied consumer to a label. We don’t want the sealing to destroy three years of work.” Otherwise, Axelle and Pierre Courdurié, who have adopted biodynamic cultivation methods, prepare the infusions which they spread on their crops, and bring their cow dung from Cantal.
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Their success is based on La Croix de Labrie, a little bomb of sweetness with a dark color, a precise wine, neither too acidic nor too fruity, with perfect balance. A fleshy, sensual juice, which has seduced French and Anglo-Saxon critics for a long time and which satisfies even more those who let it sit in their cellar, checking at regular intervals that things have improved further. The Courdurié also produce Camille, a well-made, super-accessible, tasty wine, enough to reconcile young consumers with Bordeaux. Camille de Labrie combines a very decent, light juice and an unbeatable price, 9 euros. Who says better?
