Château Providence

2005 was the first release of Chateau Providence after Christian Moueix purchased the property. As is clear from the quality already apparent in the first few vintages, Chateau Providence will become an extremely well known estate in years to come.

Because of its position on the Pomerol plateau, next to Chateau Lafleur and Hosanna, Christian Moueix saw the potential for this property for quite some time, but only recently was able to gain control of it. The 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc vineyard was once part of Chateau Tropchaud, one of Pomerol’s oldest and largest vineyards. 

1,000-1,250 cases of this wine are typically produced per year.

Terroir has real meaning in Christian Moueix’ Bordeaux.  The restoration of Château Providence (acquired in 2005) and construction of its cellar was painstakingly carried out for just a 10 acre vineyard, and a minute production of 1,250 cases a year.   Starting with the inaugural 2005 vintage, the first after Christian Moueix purchased the property, Providence has become one of the most exciting properties in all of Bordeaux.  The vineyard is picture-perfect, and had always been well-managed even before Christian Moueix purchased it.  The changes Christian made were, as in all his vineyards, the elimination of herbicides and chemicals, and a specific system of single guyot pruning that best allows easy circulation of sap within the vine.  There is no formula for pruning, each vine is pruned differently, treated as an individual.  At harvest time, there are an extraordinary 300 pickers covering the Moueix vineyard patches that ultimately total only around 200 acres.  That is the definition of making wine in the vineyard, and not in the winery.

As since its first release, Providence has a darker fruit profile and is more powerful than La Fleur-Pétrus.  It’s a power that is apparent right away and stays right on through the long, long finish.  An extremely impressive wine, and utterly fascinating in how different it is from La Fleur-Pétrus, just down the road; come to think of it, Providence is perhaps more like Pétrus in character than La Fleur-Pétrus.