Le Dôme, 2009 St-Emilion Grand Cru
The history of Le Dôme begins in 1996 at the confluence of two stories. The first being that of Englishman Jonathan Maltus, who began his life as a vigneron in 1994 with the purchase of Château Teyssier in the commune of Vignonet in the St-Emilion appellation. The second being that of the Gouteyron family, owners of Vieux Château Mazerat, who would've planted the lieu-dit of Languitey with mostly Cabernet Franc back in the 1950s. Upon the death of Francis Gouteyron, one of the two sons, this 3.965ha portion of Vieux Château Mazerat was put up for sale, and was subsequently purchased by Jonathan Maltus in 1996.
With a keen eye for business, and perhaps a little bit of the chutzpah that goes along with being an outsider in Bordeaux, Jonathan believed it was possible to make a world-class wine in St-Emilion without the need for a chateau and hundreds of years of history. So, with the purchase of these parcels, Jonathan set out to make a small production, single-vineyard, terroir-driven wine - and with that one of the purest expression of Cabernet Franc from Bordeaux was born with the first vintage of Le Dôme being 1996. And with this wine, Jonathan became one of the pioneers of the garagiste movement that began in the mid 1990s on Bordeaux's right bank.
For those that have been following this project for some time now, you will have noticed a distinct lack of Bordeaux content. The reason for this is quite simple. While Cabernet Franc is undoubtably an important variety in the region, generally speaking, it plays a supporting role, with its offspring, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, taking centre stage. My mission for this project was to highlight Cabernet Franc as the star, primarily as a single-varietal wine, but also as the dominant variety in select wines.
On the right bank of Bordeaux where Cabernet Franc shines, most notably in St-Emilion and to a lesser extent Pomerol, there are not as many examples of Cabernet Franc dominant wines as one might think. Even the great Château Cheval Blanc, which is often regarded as THE top expression of “Cabernet Franc” from Bordeaux, in the last 20 vintage, Cabernet Franc has only been more than 50% of the blend FIVE times, and even then it is still usually less than 60% of the blend.
So, why might this be? Well, there's likely several reasons, but I'm going to touch on two. First, there actually isn't a lot of Cabernet Franc planted in St-Emilion versus Merlot. Currently, in the appellations of St-Emilion and St-Emilion Grand Cru there are 5450ha under vine, of that there is 953ha of Cabernet Franc planted. That's only 18% of the vineyards area, with Merlot making up the bulk of the difference. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, comes down to the soils. Now I recognize that soils are not a focal point of the conversation with regards to St-Emilion, but for the purpose of my exploration of Cabernet Franc in this appellation, it is a critical piece of the puzzle. Cabernet Franc is notoriously a very site sensitive grape variety, and with the complexity of the terroir across the appellation, the sites where Cabernet Franc shines at its best, are not as widespread as one would think.
Which brings me to Le Dôme and where exactly we are in St-Emilion. So the appellation of St-Emilion encompasses 9 communes in the Libournais. We're bordered to the south by the meandering Dordogne River, and bordered to the north by the Barbanne River, and the appellation is about 12km wide and about 9km from north to south.
At the heart of the appellation, is the commune of St-Emilion and the picturesque village itself, which sits atop a limestone plateau. And this limestone plateau is an important part of the terroir of St-Emilion, but it does not represent the whole picture.
There are 4 broad groups of soils we find in the St-Emilion appellation. We have the famous plateau of calcaire à astéries, a limestone that dates to the Oligocene epoch. This plateau stretches from St-Emilion across five communes to the village of Saint-Etienne-de-Lisse in the east. It is on this plateau where we find the highest concentration of the premier Grand Cru Classés chateaux, such as Château Ausone.
Second, we have the higher slopes that descend from the limestone plateau of calcareous-clay on a soft limestone bedrock that is known locally as the molasse du Fronsadais. Third, on the lower slopes, we can find either sandy-loams or clay loams atop the molasse bedrock. Finally, we have the wide, Quaternary terraces that slowly step their way down from the limestone plateau towards the Dordogne in the south and the Barbanne in the north. The first of these terraces is made up of complex gravels and sands at elevations of 30 to 35m which follows the western and northern perimeters of the limestone plateau west of the village of St-Emilion, followed by terraces at lower elevations from 4 to about 20m above sea level south of the limestone plateau, which are made up of the recent alluvial deposits of the Dordogne flood plain.
At first glance, one might dismiss these Quaternary terraces as being inferior to the vineyards located on the slopes or the plateau. However, we do find some prestigious properties on the higher terrace, including Château Cheval Blanc and Château Angélus. And one of the commonalities of these estates is a slightly greater emphasis on Cabernet Franc in the blend.
Which brings me to Le Dôme. This wine is coming from a single-vineyard site of 3.965 hectares, with about 3ha of Cabernet Franc and and the remaining Merlot. And where are we located? We are on the first of these Quaternary terraces, on a gentle southwest facing slope, at an elevation of around 30-35m above sea level, a mere 500m west of Château Angélus. What's more, is if you look at the underlying geology of this area, the parcels of Le Dôme follow the same narrow vein of soils that weave their way north-northwest through the parcels of Château Cheval Blanc and into Pomerol.
So, more specifically, what we are dealing with here in these parcels is a shallow clayey-sand, sablo-argileux in French, then at about 40cm we have a deep subsoil of clay with layers of iron-rich rock, known locally as crasse de fer. Between the topsoil and the subsoil, we have a nice balance between draining and moisture retention capacity. The parcels were planted in the mid-1950s by the Gouteyron family, and since Jonathan Maltus purchased the parcels in 1996, he has not changed anything about the way the vineyard was originally planted and laid out.
When it comes to the finished wine, there is a lot of attention to detail when it comes time for harvest and what takes place in the cellar. The yields are kept low, around 28hl/ha. The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed. The fruit is sorted by hand three times, once before destemming, and they sort the berries twice. The tanks are filled by gravity in order to ensure the integrity of the berries. The berries undergo a cold soak for about 5 days prior to alcoholic fermentation. In 2009, the fermentation took place in temperature control oak vats, with a total time on skins of about 35 days. They also did some regular pigeage and pump-overs during that time to aid extraction. Maturation took place for 18 months in French oak barriques, 80% of which is new.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Le Dôme (JCP Maltus Vigneron & Winemaker)
Appellation: St-Emilion Grand Cru
Commune: St-Emilion
Lieux-Dits: Languitey
Assemblage: 80% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot
Soils: 40cm of clayey-sand (sablo-argileux), deep clay subsoil layered with crasse de fer (a type of iron-rich rock)
Alcohol: 14.5%
