Château Le Chemin

The story of “Le Chemin”, which means The Way, follows one that began several centuries ago in a neighbouring vineyard in Saint Emilion. In 1996, François Despagne, a member of the family’s seventh generation of winemakers, took over the torch at Grand Corbin-Despagne.
Three years earlier, in 1993, his parents, the Despagne-Rapins, had acquired Le Chemin, in Pomerol. They passed it down to their son, François Despagne, in 2008.
“I have a special place in my heart for Pomerol,” says François Despagne, “and Le Chemin gave me the chance to fulfil a dream. I’ve set out to make a delicate, fine and elegant wine that can be appreciated both by enthusiasts and novices.”
“The wine’s name has a special significance for me. It evokes my own path and my quest to make the best possible wines in each of the terroirs with which I have been entrusted. The name also refers of course to the spiritual quest of the pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.”

The “Graves de Pomerol” (a part of Pomerol with high gravel content in the soils) gives wines that are silky, creamy and with elegant tannins. On the palate, they are longer rather than broad.

From the pruning to the harvesting, each necessary vineyard task (de-suckering, de-budding, removal of double shoots, de-leafing, crop thinning and shoot thinning) is performed in such a way that the highest quality grapes can be produced each year.
“The common thread that runs through my work as a wine grower is anticipation, respect and stability, in order to make the best wine possible in each vintage,” says François Despagne, who applies the same golden rules in each of his vineyards. “Through careful observation and decision-making throughout the whole of the growing season, I aim to produce a precise, well-defined wine that respects its terroir and its identity.”
Constantly attached to his land, he even chose to begin converting his vineyard in 1996 to certified organic status -a choice that reinforced his commitment to quality and high standards of vine growing.
Respect for the vineyard’s terroir and loyalty to its original identity are therefore the cornerstones of the Chemin wine-growing philosophy.
The road that Le Chemin has taken will no doubt lead it to a bright future.

Before the harvest, the berries are sampled on the vine, firstly by tasting and then by laboratory analysis. This enables us to determine when they will be perfectly ripe and ready to pick. While being manually harvested, the bunches are sorted in the vineyard. They are then sorted again at the cellars before being de-stemmed. The berries of the batches brought in from the two plots making up the vineyard are transferred to temperature-controlled vats. These are vinified according to their potential and monitored by close observation, analyses and tastings.

After maceration and running off, the wines are run directly into barrels for their malo-lactic fermentation. The wine ages in barrel for 12 to 15 months depending on the vintage and with a blend of different barrels (origin, char and cooper). The bottling is done 21 months after the harvest.