Château Fonroque

Château Fonroque is the birthplace of the Moueix family in Saint-Emilion.  This property was bought in 1931 by Jean and Adèle, the great grandparents of Alain Moueix, who is now director of this lovely wine estate.

The second son in a family of small-scale farmers from the highlands in the Corrèze region, Jean Moueix moved “up” to Paris in the 1920s, where with his wife Adèle he opened a first cheese and dairy produce shop; he subsequently established many more.  Several years later, they bought Château Fonroque where they settled for good.  The decades that ensued sealed the attachment felt by Jean and Adèle, and later by their son Jean-Antoine, for the lands of Fonroque.  The oldest records show that Fonroque has always been a wine-producing estate.

When Jean-Antoine died in 1979, the firm Etablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix (a family-owned, Libourne wine trade firm) was entrusted with the running of this estate. The vineyard was managed on the basis of a programme of regular replanting and drainage work.  The method of green harvesting, especially for young vines, is used systematically.

In the wine storehouse, the introduction of extremely careful management of barrels and efficiency in blending techniques are key contributions to quality.  Considerable investments were made in 1993 which financed the construction of a second barrel storehouse, a bottling room and a tasting room. Vine growing methods that take into account the fundamental balances of nature provide the foundations for vinification that produces wines of premium quality.

Alain Moueix was appointed to manage this family estate in 2001.  Each generation makes its mark, and Alain clearly adheres to this tradition.

The Fonroque estate stretches its 20 hectares over several hundred metres to the north-west of the village of Saint-Emilion.  The vineyard covers 17.6 hectares in a single piece of land that spreads across a plateau and a west-facing hillside.   Neighbouring estates are principally classified growths: Château Laniote to the West, Château Cap de Mourlin to the North, Château Moulin du Cadet and Cadet Piolat to the East, Château Clos Fourtet on the Southern slope.

When taking over the management of the estate in 2001, a full audit of the vineyard was carried out: any resolute aim for improving quality initially involves good knowledge of terroirs. 47 pits in the vineyard were analysed; this research provided details about each of the plots and enabled the implementation of a real strategy for improving and highlighting the potential of the vineyard.

In the Fonroque vineyard, we find this type of lay out:

• The plateau: relatively shallow soils with the presence of a slab of limestone close to the surface
• The hillside: a majority of clay-limestone soils
• The foot of the hillside: limestone is less present

Fonroque therefore has the three main types of soil shared by the most acclaimed estates in this appellation.

An excellent terroir is typified by a controlled hydrous system.  It is important that water cannot be soaked up easily by the vine, which nevertheless must be able, thanks to its roots, to find some and therefore avoid any periods when ripening might come to a halt.  

Since the majority of plots in the Fonroque vineyard are on slopes, they have the advantage of natural drainage.  Drainage work elsewhere has been done when necessary.

If we add to this the presence of limestone in the majority of soils, which provides the wines of Fonroque with freshness, length on the palate and stylishness absolutely characteristic of Saint-Emilion fine wines, we can truly say it is a first-class terroir. More precisely, the presence of limestone and/or clay means that laying-down wines full of character can be made: clay provides strength and density, limestone and minerality. Incorporating adapted compost into the soil also encourages life below the surface, without generating robustness for the vine.  Biodynamic preparations are added onto these composts.  

Fonroque has vine growing soils of excellent quality, whose vocation for wine production goes far back in history.  Organic and biodynamic growing methods ensure better balanced and more vibrant soils which naturally maintain good structure and put an end to problems of them becoming packed down.

At Château Fonroque, plots of Cabernet Franc grown on soils containing a majority of limestone bring elegance, length and structure to the wines; these elements also offset the natural roundness and generosity of Merlot. Wines made here are naturally rich; they possess intense balance and complexity, giving an elegant, velvety-smooth sensation on the palate.  Their length is a guarantee of finely-balanced ageing. 

The reasoning applied to organic viticulture is naturally consistent with procedures for harvesting (hand-picked) and winemaking.  Gentle, precise techniques are used for handling the grapes and dealing with them once transformed and transferred to vats equipped with thermoregulation.  The vats are small because the winemaking process is completely in-line with the plot-by-plot management established in the vineyard.

Alcoholic fermentation is done slowly to encourage the wine's expression and complexity.
Depending on vats and vintages, maceration can last from fifteen to thirty days, a period during which extraction is supervised precisely to optimise the wine's elegance. 

Also, as the structure is gradually forming, it is important to encourage combinations and polymerizations that enable the texture to be “fine-tuned” and bring out silky sensations on the palate. 

Obtaining increasingly rich grapes, the use of the barrel must enable the wine to reveal its true expression, without being overpowered by the wood: in this way it preserves all its freshness during the next eighteen months. During the maturation process, racking is done from barrel to barrel, without pumping.  In certain vintages and when necessary, wines are fined using “organically” produced albumen. The wines are eventually bottled, without filtration.

Château Cartier, the estate's second wine, is made with batches whose finish is slightly less long and minerality not quite as distinct.  The second wine represents 30% of the total harvest. Eventually, the vast number of high-quality procedures and the meticulous work carried out by the team at Château Fonroque have enabled a real equilibrium to be formed and maintained between the vineyard, its environment and its production.

When Alain Moueix assumed the management of this 20-hectare estate (17.6 of which under vine) in 2000, he took the time to observe his terroir and vineyard carefully. Thanks to his training as an agricultural engineer-oenologist and endowed with wine-producing experience gained in France as well as abroad, he made the carefully considered decision to pass Château Fonroque over to "organic" methods as of 2002.  Verifications to obtain certification began in 2003.

From then onwards, an adapted supervision of each plot of the vineyard began to be established, knowing that this was a long and difficult task of observation and analysis that would last for several years.   In 2005, as a logical progression of all the procedures undertaken by Alain Moueix and his team, biodynamic methods were implemented for the entire vineyard (gradually established since 2002).

For Alain Moueix, this type of viticulture brings more coherence to his commitment to ecological and high-quality winegrowing.  His motivations take into account the environment, the durability of the soils and an aim to bring out the best expression of the terroir as well as the intensity and fine balance of the wines.

"Biodynamic viticulture represents an approach that seeks to respect living organisms.  It makes us aware of the potential of our vineyard and enables us to express this better.  In this way, biodynamic methods help a winegrower to stay in the background and put his terroir in the forefront, which is a wonderful recompense.  Biodynamic viticulture is demanding, but extremely rewarding." Alain Moueix
 

Considering that nature is an entirety in which there are many interactions, biodynamics take into account the overall environment of the vine. Biodynamic treatments for the vine and terroir are therefore completely natural: they enable soils to be vivified; they help the vine ward off disease and insects, encourage better balances and contribute to re-establishing nature's cycles. The vines at Fonroque now react to biodynamics, and this means the wines produced are more authentic.

Beyond ecological motivations, the aim of this approach is also to seek a different kind of balance in the wines and so achieve the very best the terroir can yield.