" We don't sell the wine without touching the vine "
Chateau Beard La Chapelle Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2012
No longer available.
| Country: | France |
| Region: | Bordeaux |
| Winery: | Beard La Chapelle |
| Grape Type: | Merlot |
| Organic: | Yes |
| Vintage: | 2012 |
| Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
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Product Description
Appellation: Saint- Emilion
Composition: 90% Merlot,7% Cabernet Franc,3% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aging: Ageing is for 12 months.
Tasting Notes: Dark purple in the glass. Aromas of blackcurrant, vanilla and a touch of wood on the nose. At first taste you can tell this wine will take on some age. Rich and layered, but held back due to its youth. Soft tannins blend with black fruit flavors and a touch of mineral on the finish. Drink over the next 7 to 10 years. This vintage is more approachable at an early age then the previous two vintages.
Soil: Limestone-clay on the "côtes" and deep-lying sand on the "pieds de côtes".
Avg Age of Vines: Vines have an average age of 40 years.
Vinification: Grapes are picked by hand and machine, but manually sorted after destemming. The vinification is a traditional with three gentle pumping overs per day and with one or two rack and returns carried out during the period of fermentation. Total time in vat is between 3 to 4 weeks
Awards: 2013 Gilbert & Gaillard Guide - Gold Medal
Winery: Beard La Chapelle
ituated in the Gironde, in the village of Saint-Laurent-des-Combes, one of the eight communes in the Juridiction of St Emilion which has been classed as an official World Heritage UNESCO site since 1999. The 18 hectare estate of Béard La Chapelle is an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée Saint Emilion Grand Cru. The Appellation of Grand Cru St Emilion stipulates a planting density of only 5,500 vines per hectare and a maximum yield of 49 hectolitres per hectare.
This yield is one of the lowest in Bordeaux and enforces producers to reduce the production of each vine making the grapes harvested more concentrated in terms of colour, tannins and aromas.
History of the Property
The property of Château Béard La Chapelle has been in the same family for 9 generations and has had two main chapters in its history. In 1980, Richard Moureau took over the vineyards from his parents and built a cellar next to the single vineyard plot “Béard”, the site of an ancient chapel from which the property took its name. He received the following year the « le Chapitre des Honneurs » of Saint Emilion for his 1981 vintage awarded to him by the famous oenologist, Emile Peynaud. In 2006, Richard’s son Franck left his career in journalism to take over the running of the estate.
In 2009 his sister Laurence takes in charge communication and export issues. The estate has grown by a few hectares, vines have been replaced and the density of the vineyards has been increased to 7,600 vines per hectare. The winery has been updated and procedures such as “green harvesting” deleafing, desuckering and removing the superfluous bunches of grapes) have been introduced systematically.
The Vineyards, Terroir and Grapes
There are 18 hectares of vineyards grow in clay and limestone soils on the slopes of St Emilion and deep sand on the base of the slopes. The average age of the vines is 40 years and the density of the vines is 5,500 per hectare for the oldest parcels of vines and 7,600 vines per hectare for all of the plots that have been replanted. Béard La Chapelle is a wine made from the three main grape varieties of the appellation:
- Merlot (90%) : The predominance of Merlot in this wine gives a good aromatic complexity of red and black fruits. The signature of Béard is a floral perfume of rose and violets. The tannins are supple and there is a roundness on the palate with a smooth silky finish.
- Cabernet Franc (7%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (3%) : The Cabernets give spicy notes to the wine and a good structure which helps to give it further ageing potential. Château Béard La Chapelle is a feminine wine of elegance and finesse.According to the type of soil, the vines are grafted with 101.14 root stocks (for the lighter soils), and 3309 (for the deep well draining sands).
Making the Wine
Béard La Chapelle produces 100,000 bottles per year. Franck Moureau is the wine maker and runs the property with the help of two full-time workers (and their wives who work part-time in the vineyards). They have worked for the property for over 20 years.
In addition, seasonal workers are employed for jobs such as the “green harvest” and for deleafing prior to harvest-time. Franck’s sister, Laurence, is in charge of the promotion of the vineyard brand and the development of international sales.
A Year in the Vineyard
Between mid December and mid February when the sap is in the roots of the vine, pruning takes place ; “Guyot simple” (1 branch with 7 buds). In the summer the the excess leaves of the vine are removed to give good aeration and to better expose the bunches of grapes to the sun. A “green harvest” is also carried out to ensure that there are only 7 bunches of grapes per vine. In parallel the vines are treated to protect them from disease but only when absolutely necessary. Alternative practices (such as spraying with an organic adjuvant and use of “intercep” machinery) are being trialled to ensure that Béard La Chapelle is produced as naturally as possible.
Grass is grown in between the vines on alternate rows which allows any excess water to be absorbed. In addition alternate rows are cultivated to encourage microbial life and to encourage roots to delve deep.
A Year in the Cellar
The winery has a capacity of 2,000 hectolitres and the stainless steel vats are thermo-regulated. The equipment in the winery includes a pneumatic press for gentle pressing, a destemming machine and a sorting table. The underground ageing cellar holds 300 french oak “barriques” from five different coopers (medium toast). At the time of harvest after destemming, the grapes are sorted by hand on the sorting table. A cold soak is carried out during a period of five days at 7° before fermentation begins. The vinification is traditional with four gentle pumping overs per day and with one rack and returns carried out during the period of fermentation. The total time in vat is between 3 to 4 weeks. The wine is aged for 12 months, in one third new barrels, one third barrels of one “wine” and one third barrels of two “wines”.
The wine in barrel is racked on average four times during its ageing depending on the vintage. At the end of ageing, the different lots of the wine are blended before being fined with egg whites. The wine is bottled at the property.
- back
Exceptionally aromatic with aromas of violets, hints of blackberry, blackcurrant and black plum on the nose. There is some spice that is balanced with fresh acidity and minerality. A long finish with ripe but firm tannins.
Dow's Senhora da Ribeira can be enjoyed anytime and pairs wonderfully with chocolate desserts and soft cheeses like creamy Stilton or Roquefort.
Review:
Rich and fruity, this wine is packed with intense black-currant flavors. It is perfumed, ripe with a good tannic background. The density of the wine and the firm structure point to a long aging process. Drink this beautifully structured wine from 2026.
-Wine Enthusiast 93 Points
Winemaking:
Senhora da Ribeira has one of the most advanced specialist wineries in the Douro, combining the best of traditional winemaking practice, evolved over centuries, and the latest state-of-the-art automated systems. Three granite ‘lagares’ for foot treading are complemented by three ‘robotic’ lagares, designed by the Symington family and installed in the quinta’s winery in 2001.
It has long been recognised that traditional treading produced some of the finest Ports, but there are some drawbacks involved in traditional treading; temperature control is difficult, there is a limit to how long people are willing to tread and they need to sleep. The winemaker’s options are therefore limited, he or she cannot order treading at different times through the night, or pull people off the picking team at will. Furthermore, emptying the traditional lagar takes a long time; in the meantime the fermentation process is accelerating away. A further handicap arose over recent years, when an increasing scarcity of labour obliged producers to look for less labour-intensive vinification solutions. The Symingtons opted to devise a mechanical means of replicating the proven method of foot treading. The result was the Symington ‘robotic lagar’, an automated treading machine which exactly replicates the gentle action of the human foot and which has revolutionised winemaking in the Douro Valley. This equipment is very expensive but the results have been so good that an increasing proportion of Dow’s finest wines are now made in these automated lagares. Approximately half of the wines for Dow’s much praised 2003 Vintage were vinified in them.
The Senhora da Ribeira’s Quinta Vintage Ports have amassed a highly impressive number of awards: three Gold Medals at the International Wine Challenge, (2008, 2006 and 2001, for the 2005, 2002 and 1999 Vintages, respectively) as well as seven Silver Medals and two Gold Medals at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (London, 2008 for the 2005 Vintage and 2002 for the 1998 Vintage). In September 2006, Jancis Robinson MW wrote, “One very exciting new bottling is Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira 2004...this single quinta bottling demonstrates superb quality with wonderful vibrancy. Great wine in any context - not that unlike some California reds! This is definitely a wine to look out for when it is released.”
Wine Profile
The very hot climate through the summer at this vineyard results in highly complex and concentrated wines but very low yields. Colours of the musts in the fermentation tanks are always purple-black due to the very high skin to juice ratio. The old vines add further to the intensity of the wine as they make up a very large percentage of the vineyard. The resulting wine can be described as being the essence of Vintage Port, with powerful wild red-fruit flavours, leading into rich black chocolate notes, the whole balanced by complex, attractive and peppery tannins.
One of the Douro’s most beautiful vineyards, Senhora da Ribeira is located 24km (15 miles) upriver from Quinta do Bomfim in the remote Douro Superior. The vineyard commands a magnificent north bank position, overlooking a broad sweep of the Douro, directly opposite another famous Symington owned vineyard: Quinta do Vesuvio. Senhora de Ribeira was built close to an ancient river crossing, guarded by two 12th century castles on either side of the river built by the Moors during their centuries long occupation of Iberia. A small chapel dedicated to the ‘Lady of the River’ (literally: Senhora da Ribeira) has stood here for centuries and gave the quinta its name. Travellers would pause here to ask for a safe river passage and onward journey.
Senhora da Ribeira’s wines are some of the finest in the Douro and they complement those from Bomfim in the composition of Dow’s classic Vintage Ports. The quinta’s high proportion of old vines (45% are over 25 years old) is of critical importance. The old vines are very low-yielding, producing on average less than 1Kg of grapes each, giving intense and concentrated musts which are ideal for classic Vintage Port. The remainder of the vineyard was replanted as follows: 21% in 2001 and 34% from 2004, the latter involving mainly Touriga Nacional vines. This grape variety - very important for Vintage Port - now represents almost exactly a third of the total planted at the quinta. The entire vineyard has the maximum ‘A’ rating.
As with Bomfim, the consistency of the climate plays a key role, although the rainfall is only half of that experienced at Bomfim: 448mm is the 10 year average. This more extreme climate, hot dry summers and cold, equally dry winters results in wines with unique depth of colour and complexity.
As with Quinta do Bomfim, the best Ports from Senhora de Ribeira are used to make Dow’s Vintage Ports in the great and rare ‘Declared’ years. In the good year’s when Dow’s does not ‘declare’ a Vintage, the best wines of ‘The Lady of the River’ are bottled as Dow’s Quinta de Senhora da Ribeira Vintage Port. They will tend to mature a little earlier than the very rare ‘Declared’ years, but can be every bit as good as some other Vintage Ports.
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This elegant dry white wine is bursting with delicious tropical fruit aromas and delicate floral notes. The palate is clean, zesty and refreshing, full of ripe citrus flavors and crispy acidity.
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