Le Grand Verdus, a tsunami in the Entre-deux-mers
Le Grand Verdus, one of our beloved producers, is featured on the renown newspaper Les Echos - Wine edition.
Have a look at their bottles here.
We translated the article for you to enjoy the reading.
Le Grand Verdus, a tsunami in the Entre-deux-mers
The market responds admirably to the intuitions of these two winemaking brothers, as bold as they are demanding.
"When you don't have the reputation of the appellation, you have to seek that of the winemaker," says Thomas Le Grix de la Salle. At Grand Verdus in Entre-deux-Mers, his brother Edouard and he took the bull by the horns in this former dairy farm, breaking the codes and shattering the glass ceiling of "Bordeaux Sup." Beware, explosive bottles!
The gene of rupture runs in their veins: their grandfather Philippe had already left the cooperative cellar in 1972, and their father Antoine finished converting the family farm into a vineyard with heavy investments in the cellar and plantations. At 45 and 42 years old, Thomas, an oenological consultant initiated alongside the great Jean-Claude Berrouet at Pétrus, and Edouard, an agronomist, begin to taste the fruits of their audacity, deployed over fifteen years in 130 hectares of vines now certified organic around Sadirac. As well as in the cellar, rebuilt in 2016. "Fortunately, we didn't wake up during the crisis," emphasizes the elder.
Their first task was to reposition the grape varieties on their preferred terroirs in this vast property composed of a myriad of soils, exposures, altitudes, and microclimates: four hectares of blue clay worthy of Pomerol for the Merlots, superb gravel similar to the Médoc for the Cabernet Sauvignons, and clay-limestone plots that carve out first-class Cabernet Francs.
Creativity without borders
The Grande Réserve Rouge was born from the adjustment of this puzzle, like its white counterpart, a 100% Sémillon from old vines, and the range of single-varietal parcels. These iconoclastic wines explore new expressions of Bordeaux: a 100% Cabernet Franc "unprecedented outside the Loire Valley" or a 100% Syrah with Rhodanian accents, produced on a plot replanted in 2017 with a century-old mass selection provided by a friendly estate from Comas.
In 2018, the broad-minded estate released its first sulfur-free red, Essentiel. But also Macérat, a unique orange wine because it's 100% Sémillon, and Vertige, another Sémillon aged three years on lees and enriched in solera. This lace nectar borrows from Australian wines and Xeres. A third Jura-tinted Sémillon, oxidative, patiently reduced in a foudre... The mental horizon of Thomas and Edouard, who have worked in New Zealand and South Africa, extends far beyond the natural borders of the Dordogne and the Garonne. Where did they get their white "pet nat," which makes Merlot and Cabernet Franc bubble? They had produced 1,200 test bottles in 2021. In 2023, they corked 12,000. The market responds admirably to their intuitions, surrounded by great technical rigor with the demand "to always be at the right price for the right taste."
In a Burgundian format, labels freed from typographic nobility and the sacred engraving of the – though very beautiful – Renaissance castle, their bottles Parcellaires, Originales, or Divergentes breathe the spirit of the times. It's often only when you turn them around that you discover the origin, Bordeaux, and think, "why not." The imagination of the Le Grix de la Salle does not run dry. They planted two hectares of Chenin and a conservatory of nine pre-phyllomeric regional grape varieties. Enough to vinify a barrel of each. And perhaps, one day, they will choose bouchalès, saint-macaire, or pardotte.
Château Le Grand Verdus, Cabernet-Franc, Lieu-dit Mondet
The family castle has embarked on a series of experiments, including planting Syrah on one hectare. Among these trials on a very beautiful limestone soil, this Cabernet Franc is a true success between freshness and balance. A beautiful demonstration of the know-how of Grand Verdus, this cuvée allows us to see what this beautiful grape variety is capable of.