Visits

Château Beychevelle
Saint-Julien, 4^th Grand Cru Classé du Médoc (France)


 

Château Beychevelle, 2001
Excellent. Aromas of toasted bread, blackcurrant and raspberry, very elegant and silky tannins, well balanced. Blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 39% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot. (Jan 2007)

Ownership & Management
Grands Millésimes de France (owner), Aymar de Baillenx (President), Philippe Blanc (Director)

Consultants
Pascal Ribereau-Gayon, Jacques Boissenot

Vineyard
90 ha, 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Vines are about 25 years old and planted on gravel soils. Green harvesting, manual harvesting, mecanical de-stemming, manual sorting (before and after de-stemming).

Winemaking
The grapes are crushed and transferred to stainless steel or concrete vats for traditional fermentation.  The wine is blended then aged 18 months in oak barrels (50-55% new for Château Beychevelle wine, 20% new for Amiral). The wine is fined and filtered once before bottling.

The estate produces 40-50,000 cases (about 480-600,000 bottles) every year (including 20-22,000 cases of Château Beychevelle).

Wines
·  Château Beychevelle
·  Amiral de Beychevelle
·  Les Brulières de Beychevelle