Château Moutte Blanc

The estate

Moutte Blanc began as a retirement project. In the early 1980s Guy and Josette Déjean-de Bortoli, he an advertising draftsman and she a saleswoman of pharmaceutical products, took on a plot of 1 hectare that belonged to Josette’s family at Macau, in the south of the Médoc. With their son Patrice they modernized the vat room, reorganized the bottle store, added a barrel cellar and restored and enlarged the vineyard, working with the oenologist Jacques Boissenot. In 2000 Patrice de Bortoli gave up his profession as a psychomotor therapist to give all his time to Moutte Blanc and to Petit Verdot: he selected old vines, had them cloned and replanted them to save the variety’s genetic material, and Petit Verdot is now 30% of the planting.

The 5.5 hectares, mostly clay and silt by the Gironde with small parcels of Garonne gravel, are planted en foule, the varieties mixed together, at 5,000 to 6,000 vines a hectare, some of them 70 years old and more, and they yield up to 8 wines in 4 appellations. Picking is by hand into crates, the wines are racked by gravity, and the Margaux and the Haut-Médoc are bottled without filtration. Part of the ground became Margaux when the appellation was redrawn, during the 2007 harvest. The Margaux comes from 0.75 hectares of Garonne gravel planted only with Merlot and ages 18 months in barrel, 70% new, for about 2,400 bottles a year. The Haut-Médoc, Cuvée Marguerite Déjean, comes from parcels of deep gravel at Arsac and Macau, 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, fermented in a cement vat of 33 hectoliters with 4 weeks on the skins and aged 14 months in barrel, 40% new, for about 2,600 bottles. Both are Crus Artisans du Médoc for the vintages 2022 to 2026. The rest of the range includes Moisin, a pure Petit Verdot from a very old parcel, Château Moutte Blanc in Bordeaux Supérieur, and a rosé.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux; the Cuvée Marguerite Déjean is Haut-Médoc

Commune

Macau

Classification

Cru Artisan du Médoc, vintages 2022 to 2026, for the Margaux and the Haut-Médoc

Owners

The de Bortoli-Déjean family; Patrice de Bortoli

Vineyard

5.5 hectares in 4 appellations; 5,000 to 6,000 vines a hectare; Petit Verdot 30%

Ground

Clay and silt by the Gironde; parcels of Garonne gravel

The Margaux

0.75 hectares; Merlot 100%; 18 months in barrel, 70% new; about 2,400 bottles

The Haut-Médoc

Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Merlot 30%; 14 months in barrel, 40% new; about 2,600 bottles

Cellar

Picked by hand into crates; racked by gravity; the Margaux and the Haut-Médoc unfiltered

Wines

Château Moutte Blanc, Margaux; Cuvée Marguerite Déjean; Moisin; Château Moutte Blanc, Bordeaux Supérieur; a rosé

Sources: Château Moutte Blanc · Château Moutte Blanc, the château · Château Moutte Blanc, the passion · Château Moutte Blanc, the Margaux · Château Moutte Blanc, Cuvée Marguerite Déjean · Crus Artisans du Médoc, Château Moutte Blanc · Qualisud, the Crus Artisans du Médoc classification, 2022 to 2026