Château Valandraud

The estate

Valandraud began about as small as a Bordeaux estate can. In 1991 Murielle Andraud and Jean-Luc Thunevin put all their money into 0.6 hectares at the gates of Saint-Émilion and made the wine in a garage turned into a cellar. The estate has since grown to 10.70 hectares and moved to Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse, on the clay and limestone plateau, where a carpet of clay about 50 centimeters deep covers the limestone bedrock. It is planted 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, at 8,200 vines a hectare and 8,500 on the younger Merlot.

In 2012, 21 years after the garage, Valandraud was promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé B, and the list approved in September 2022 confirms it among the 14 Premiers Grands Crus Classés. Christophe Lardière runs the vines and Rémi Dalmasso the cellar, with Jean-Philippe Fort, of the Rolland team, consulting. Since the 2020 vintage the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) has been made in a bioclimatic cellar dug into the limestone slope, and it spends about 20 months in wood, 90% new barrels and 10% foudre; about 30,000 bottles are made a year. Virginie de Valandraud is the second wine. Blanc de Valandraud is bottled as Bordeaux Blanc, because Saint-Émilion is a red appellation and admits no white.

The name is new, but the ground is in the old books. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, listed Fongaband under Desèze at 8 to 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1853, among the Saint-Émilion growths of the first marque, in the same column as Mondot and Balestard. Édouard Féret found Cru Fongaban under J. Marchant at 2 tonneaux in 1897, and in 1908 and 1922 it was in the Loizeau family at 8. It was always small. In those years the wines of Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse reached the trade under the name Saint-Estèphe-Saint-Émilion.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse, on the clay and limestone plateau

Classification

Premier Grand Cru Classé B, 2012 and 2022

Owners

Jean-Luc Thunevin and Murielle Andraud, founders, 1991

Direction

Christophe Lardière, vineyard; Rémi Dalmasso, cellar

Consultant

Jean-Philippe Fort

Vineyard

10.70 hectares; 8,200 vines a hectare, 8,500 on the younger Merlot

Ground

Clay over limestone, about 50 centimeters to the bedrock

Grapes

Merlot 70%, Cabernet Franc 25%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Cellar

Bioclimatic, dug into the limestone slope, since the 2020 vintage; about 20 months, 90% new barrels and 10% foudre

Production

About 30,000 bottles of the grand vin a year

Wines

Château Valandraud; Virginie de Valandraud; Blanc de Valandraud

In history

Fongaban, on this ground, a growth of 2 to 10 tonneaux from 1853 to 1922

Sources: Château Valandraud, the estate · Château Valandraud, our history · Château Valandraud, our wines · Conseil des Vins de Saint-Émilion, Valandraud · Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Valandraud · INAO, Saint-Émilion grand cru: the classification for the next decade