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Wine Description
The Story
Partly an enclave of Château Pavie Decesse, on the Saint-Emilion clay limestone plateau, Château Bellevue-Mondotte is tiny in size, but has an "immense” terroir.
Overlooking the Dordogne valley from a height of 80 meters, this estate combines all the necessary characteristics for producing high quality wines: meagre soil, excellent south-facing sun exposure, fine natural drainage due to its position on a slope, protection from frost damage, and shelter from northerly winds.
Green harvesting, with an initial leaf thinning on the eastern side of the vines in late June and a second in mid-August on the western side.
The grapes are hand-picked and hand sorted. Alcoholic fermentation is triggered by indigenous yeast in temperature-controlled wooden vats. The wine is kept on the skins for 3 to 5 weeks. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel.
Château Bellevue-Mondotte is barrel-aged for six months on its lees (100% of new oak) for a total of aproximatively 24 months. Final blending takes place just before bottling, and the wine is neither fined nor filtered.
Vintage 2010
Drought and cool temperatures contribute to optimal ripeness
The sum of summer temperatures in 2010 was close to that of summer 2009 (962°C compared to 982°C), but significantly colder than those of 2005, which totaled 1052°C. These cool temperatures had a substantial influence on the balance of our wines, preserving a good level of acidity and an attractive aromatic freshness.
Very little precipitation (only 267 mm) from March to August 2010 generating a drought of similar intensity to that of 2005, when only 227 mm of rain fell.
Another characteristic of the 2010 vintage is the low temperatures especially during the first three weeks of August, which allowed good acidity levels to be preserved in the grapes while maintaining an attractive aromatic freshness.