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  • Country ranking ?

    1 312
  • Producer ranking ?

    32
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Beef

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The Story

In 1989, Jean-Luc Thunevin and Murielle Andraud became the proud owners of a small plot of land of 0,6 ha, in the valley of Saint Emilion, between Pavie Macquin and La Clotte. In 1991 they produced and bottled their first vintage. Since then, their estate portfolio has grown with properties in Saint Christophe des Bardes, Saint Sulpice de Faleyrens or Saint Etienne de Lisse.

In the early days, wine critics nicknamed their production « garag...

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Wine Information

Château de Valandraud

Château de Valandraud is a very famous ‘garage wine’ created by Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle Andraud. Its first vintage was 1991.
Having become highly successful wine merchants in the Saint-Emilion area, their burning ambition was to own their own vineyard and make their own wine. Little by little, they bought up several parcels of vines. The name of the growth is both geographical (Val for Vale of Fongaba...

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Vintage 1994

Bordeaux Vintage Report 1994 / After a mild winter, spring brought heavy rain and frost which significantly damaged the vineyards. After a stormy start to the summer, the weather calmed down and changed very favorably for the latter part of the vintage. The harvest took place in good conditions and the vintage ended moderately to even good. The wines are perfectly pleasant today.

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Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Long and Harsh

flavors

Vanilla, Cherry, Coffee, Cedar, Leather and Earthy

nose

Intense, Complex and Ripe

recommend

Yes

taste

Complex, Well-structured, Rich, Ripe, Full and Sweet tannins

Written Notes

Château Valandraud is the final achievement of hard work from a couple with a passion for wine, Jean-Luc Thunevin and his wife Murielle Andraud. Having become highly successful wine merchants in the Saint-Emilion area, their burning ambition was to own their own vineyard and make their own wine. Little by little, they bought up several parcels of vines. The name of the growth is both geographical (Val for Vale of Fongaban) and sentimental (Andraud being Murielle's name). That was how Château Valandraud came to be. Jean-Luc Thunevin decides the harvest date once the grapes have reached the optimal maturity. For the winemaking, he adopted Burgundy’s technique of punching off the cap in the fermenting vat (pigeage) and stirring the lies in the oak barrel, in order to get the maximum extraction from his wines. He does no (re?)fining or filtration, just racking barrel to barrel every three months. There were only 8,998 bottles produced in 1994.


Decanted three hours. The 1994 Valandraud was a skillful effort from this difficult vintage. A good, deep, and bright ruby colour. Excellent nose, sound and open with ripe black-cherry, vanilla and cedar aromas. Well balanced and complex on the palate with roasted coffee, chocolate, earth, and sweet tannin flavours all abundent, the intensity of fruit was preposterous. Still quite a hard and tough wine. The finish was long and leathery with a nice dryness and rich, earthy and new oakflavours. Needs time, consume this over next 10 to 15 years.

  • 93p

Tasted in August 2019. Rough edges, tannin is strong and acidity is strong as well. Some time is required here to soften the sharp corners and get this wine more admirable for the consumer.

  • 88p

Intense garnet red colour with almost black core. Very densely woven, liquorice, cigar box, berry jam. On the palate fine acidity, tannins well integrated, restrained fruit, liquorice in the finish. A massive style, however no great complexity. 

  • 90p
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Information

Origin

St. Emilion, Bordeaux
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