Château

Château La Commanderie

shah-TOH lah koh-mahn-DREE
How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ahn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.

A house that tradition gives to the Templars, on the gravel of Fortin, northwest of Saint-Émilion, with 3.7 hectares of vines, run by Magali and Thibaut Decoster and a Grand Cru Classé since 2012.

Classification
Grand Cru Classé (2022)
On Instagram
@mtdecoster

The château

La Commanderie was a house before it was a cru. Clarets and Sauternes, an English survey of 1920, found it the usual residence of the Lande-Lapelletrie family, an interesting old building once used by the Templars, whose vast cellars cut into the rock served admirably for keeping and aging the wines. A history of Saint-Émilion published in 1923 dated it with the town’s fortifications, noted 2 Romanesque windows like those of the Palais Cardinal and a wall walk ending in a corbelled turret, and repeated the tradition that the Templars had lived here.

It stands at Fortin, on the gravel plateau northwest of the town, on limestone gravel, iron-rich sands and clay. The Decoster family owns it, and it is run by Magali and Thibaut Decoster, winegrowers who settled at Clos des Jacobins on January 1, 2005 and now farm 4 family properties: Clos des Jacobins, La Commanderie, Château de Candale and Château Roc de Candale. Mike Germon directs the estates and Yohann Mourceins-Zecchi is cellar master. The revision of 2012 made La Commanderie a Grand Cru Classé, beside Clos des Jacobins, and the list of September 2022 confirmed it.

The vineyard is small, 3.7 hectares of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, with vines 35 years old on average. The family’s estates are certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3, and organic from the 2024 vintage. The grapes are picked by hand and fermented in concrete, and the wine is raised half in new barrels and half in tanks: about 19,000 bottles a year.

At a glance

Appellation
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Commune
Saint-Émilion, at Fortin, on the gravel plateau northwest of the town
Classification
Grand Cru Classé, 2012 and 2022
Owners
The Decoster family; Magali and Thibaut Decoster
Direction
Mike Germon; Yohann Mourceins-Zecchi, cellar master
Vineyard
3.7 hectares; vines 35 years old on average
Soil
Limestone gravel, iron-rich sands and clay Terroir of Saint-Émilion →
Grapes
Merlot 75%, Cabernet Franc 25%
Farming
Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; organic from the 2024 vintage
Cellar
Picked by hand; concrete; 50% new barrels, 50% tanks
Production
About 19,000 bottles
Wines
Château La Commanderie
The house
Held to be a house of the Templars, with cellars cut into the rock

Sources

Institutions
Association des Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Émilion, Château La Commanderie; Conseil des Vins de Saint-Émilion, Château La Commanderie; Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, the Saint-Émilion classification of 2022
Its own publications
Vignobles Magali et Thibaut Decoster: the properties, the commitments, the team

Revised September 23, 2026. How I choose sources

The record

Château La Commanderie is a Grand Cru Classé (2022), in the Saint-Émilion Grand Cru appellation.

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is an appellation, not a rank. A wine may carry it and hold no place at all in the Saint-Émilion classification.

Source: INAO, Saint-Émilion grand cru

Private

By invitation only.

On from here

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