Château Moulin du Cadet

The estate

Moulin du Cadet is on the Cadet hill at the entrance to Saint-Émilion, on clay over the limestone of the plateau, and it is an old name. Its wine took a gold medal at the Paris exhibition of 1867, and in 1897, in the volume Édouard Féret devoted to the Libourne district, it stood among the 1ers crus of Saint-Émilion under L. Brissaud, at 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). By 1922 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, still gave it the same 10, beside Le Cadet-Bon. It was on the first Saint-Émilion classification, and the list approved in September 2022 confirmed it.

Marie and Christophe Lefévère, who also own Château Sansonnet, Château Soutard-Cadet and Château Harmonie, bought it in 2015 and overhauled the buildings and the cellar in 2017. The vineyard is 2.85 hectares, all Merlot, with vines 35 years old on average; the soil is tilled, the vines are worked by hand through the season, and the estate is certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3. The young vines and the old are picked by hand on different days, and the grapes are sorted by gravity and by density. The wine is punched down, does its malolactic in barrel and is raised 16 months, 70% in new oak and 30% in vat. The 2022 vintage made 16,000 bottles.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, on the Cadet hill at the entrance to the town

Classification

Grand Cru Classé from the first list; confirmed in 2022

Owners

Marie and Christophe Lefévère, since 2015

Vineyard

2.85 hectares; vines 35 years old on average

Ground

Clay over the limestone of the plateau

Grapes

Merlot 100%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; tilled soil; work by hand

Cellar

Picked by hand; sorted by gravity and density; punched down; malolactic in barrel; 16 months, 70% new oak and 30% vat

Production

16,000 bottles in 2022

Wines

Château Moulin du Cadet

In history

Gold medal, Paris, 1867; a 1er cru at 10 tonneaux in 1897

Sources: Château Sansonnet, Château Moulin du Cadet · Château Moulin du Cadet, the technical sheet of 2022 · Association des Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Émilion, Château Moulin du Cadet · Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, the Saint-Émilion classification of 2022