Château Badette

The château

Badette sits on the line where the commune of Saint-Émilion meets Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes, on the northern slope of the limestone plateau, and the old books knew it well. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, lists it in 1853 under Mme Barry, and by 1868 the d’Allard family held it, at 20 to 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). A survey of the Libourne wines of 1897 gives Raoul d’Allard 40 and says the cru had always stood at the head of the second growths, superbly kept, making a delicate, soft, perfumed wine that kept perfectly. A second Badette, Badette-du-Foussat, had been split off a few years before.

Marc Vandenbogaerde spent 4 years looking for an estate in the region before he bought Badette in 2012, and then he rebuilt it: the vineyard was mapped with the soil scientist Xavier Choné, drained and replanted, and the cellars were built new. He died in 2020, and his son Arnaud Vandenbogaerde has run it since; Le Grand Monsieur de Badette, a small release, is made in his father’s memory. The list approved in September 2022 made Badette a Grand Cru Classé, a rank it had never held.

The vineyard is 9 hectares in one piece, planted 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, and the soil changes down the slope: brown soils over clay and limestone at the top, brown clay and sand over the Fronsadais molasse in the middle, where the roots go down more than 2 meters, sandier soils at the bottom, and a thin, stony alluvial parcel of 1.5 hectares on the Figeac side. It has held Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3, since 2020, and no herbicide is used. Pickers fill small crates by hand and the fruit is sorted on a table; the wine ferments in small vats of 40 to 70 hectoliters, with part of the crop fermented entirely in new barrels, and the first wine is raised 80% in new oak. Fleur de Badette, from the younger vines, is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

On the line between Saint-Émilion and Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes, on the northern slope of the plateau

Classification

Grand Cru Classé in 2022, its first classification

Owners

The Vandenbogaerde family, since 2012

Direction

Arnaud Vandenbogaerde, since 2020

Vineyard

9 hectares in one piece, 1.5 of them on the Figeac side

Soil

Clay and limestone at the top of the slope, clay and sand over the Fronsadais molasse below, thin stony alluvium on the Figeac side Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 70%, Cabernet Franc 25%, Petit Verdot 5%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2020; no herbicide

Cellar

Picked by hand into crates; small vats of 40 to 70 hectoliters; part of the crop fermented in new barrels; 80% new oak

Wines

Château Badette; Fleur de Badette; Le Grand Monsieur de Badette

In history

At the head of the second growths in 1897, at 40 tonneaux