Invidia is a curious concept that could well revolutionise the world of “petit bordeaux“. Owner of several vineyards in the Entre-deux-Mers region and now also present in Saint-Émilion and Fronsac, Jean-Pierre Derouet has had the intelligence to extricate himself from the persistent slump in the trade of these wines from the Bordeaux third state by creating his own marketing networks.
This decision allowed him to develop his wine heritage and to benefit directly from the appreciations and criticisms of a young, urban clientele. Five years ago, he deepened this strategy by recruiting a young agricultural engineer and oenologist, Hugues Laborde, as manager and winemaker for all his estates. In just a few harvests, he took his bearings, restructured the vineyards and the vintages before achieving what many experienced or novice tasters have been dreaming of for a long time.
Accessible, sapid Bordeaux wines, with precise fruit and immediately seductive freshness. A pure Gersois, Laborde has chosen by conviction the sinuous path that leads to the wine of pleasure rather than the comfort of a career in the great growths. In a wide range of unabashedly named and labelled wines, En Magnum has particularly appreciated the single-varietal vintages from two Entre-deux-Mers vineyards, Château Haut-Meyreau and Château Aurore, the latter now grown organically.
Style
One grape variety, one wine
“We run Château Aurore organically. It’s a property with superb limestone soils and also a beautiful plot on gravel, planted with Cabernet Franc. It’s an old vineyard, with high density and small yields. I want to make varietal wines where each grape variety is well identified and not a copy of petit bordeaux where the merlot looks like franc and the franc looks like cabernet-sauvignon. This means not engaging in processes where vinification techniques standardise everything. We do real cold maceration, real maceration, not stuff that lasts 48 hours. We bring in all our wines without sulfitage, we have sometimes slightly heterogeneous maturities. After that, each grape variety has its specificity. The Cabernet Franc is vinified in concrete vats and spends four to five months in older 500-litre barrels, because it holds its structure well. The Cabernet Sauvignons have spent thirteen months in barrels, which suits them well,” explains Hugues Laborde, agricultural engineer and oenologist.
Les Raisins de la colère. Merlot.
A Merlot wine with no added sulfite that is easy to drink and fruity, with supple tannins, gourmet and ultra sapid. One of the best-sellers of the range. It is easy to understand: the wine corresponds to the modern canons of pleasure wine. 90/100
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