Château Mondésir-Gazin

The château

Jean-Pierre and Patricia Simon came to wine by choice. Lovers of the mountains who had traveled in the Himalayas, Ladakh and Mongolia, they trained at the École des Vins et Spiritueux before falling for Mondésir-Gazin, which they bought in 2022, and they work with the consultancy of Stéphane Derenoncourt. The farm buildings, of Bourg stone, stand apart from the house. The vineyard they took on was already organic, certified since 2006, and it also holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms); the vines are plowed, with no chemical weedkiller.

The 13 hectares of vines, with 2 more of meadow, lie on clay and limestone slopes facing south and the estuary, split between the Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux and Côtes de Bourg appellations; the vines are 29 years old on average. The reds are Merlot with Malbec, the whites Sauvignon with Sémillon. The whites are picked by hand into small crates and chilled before a gentle pressing; the reds are machine harvested, sorted at the cellar and moved by gravity into concrete and temperature-controlled steel vats, where the cap is punched down by hand. The Simons have chosen a contemporary Bordeaux: generous, fruit-forward wines made for pleasure and easy to approach, without giving up depth or the ability to age. The range is 6 reds, a white and a Crémant de Bordeaux; among them are Chante-Alouette, made without added sulfites, Emu, the white Chenu and Bardon, a pure Malbec.

At a glance

Appellation

Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux; also Côtes de Bourg

Commune

Plassac

Classification

No classification

Owners

Jean-Pierre and Patricia Simon, since 2022

Consultant

The Derenoncourt consultancy

Vineyard

13 hectares, with 2 of meadow; vines 29 years old on average

Soil

Clay and limestone slopes facing south and the estuary Terroir of Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux →

Grapes

Red: Merlot and Malbec. White: Sauvignon and Sémillon

Farming

Organic since 2006; Haute Valeur Environnementale

Cellar

Whites picked by hand; reds by gravity into concrete and steel vats

Wines

6 reds, a white and a Crémant de Bordeaux, among them Château Mondésir-Gazin, Chante-Alouette, Emu, Chenu and Bardon