Unlike the previous two, these were confirmed by telephone and both were paying visits. One was a great success, the other anything but.
Château d’Issan
Another château we always wanted to visit but never got around to, Issan is unlike most CCs in that its château is a bit older, and looks a lot more like a medieval castle, even though it was built in the 17th century (helped by the fact that it has a moat). The château was probably built in 1622, the surrounding wall in 1644, but it was modified and modernised several times over the following centuries. French inheritance law being what it is, the château was actually divided and shared by two families for nearly a century, between 1729 and 1825. Today, it’s a little similar: 50% belongs to Emmanuel Cruse (I’m not sure if he is the sole Cruse shareholder) and 50% to Jacky Lorenzetti.
The whole setting is magnificent and I hope I can give you some idea of it with my photos. This is the gatehouse at the entrance, then one of the twin chais:
This is the view of the château from under the gatehouse:
We arrived five minutes late for our appointment, my GPS having taken us to the back entrance which was closed (it’s a good idea to confirm by mail, so that they can send you precise GPS coordinates), but that did nothing to change the very warm welcome from our hostess, Marion. She does all the visits at Issan and has been doing so since 2020. She is particularly charming and chirpy, putting us all at ease straightaway - and quickly understanding that we knew the wines quite well. She started by checking how much time we had - aware that some people fit in two visits per morning, then we began our tour of the grounds.
Everything about the grounds is impressive:
Above the door is the château motto:
“Regum mensis aris que deorum”(For the table of kings and the altar of Gods)
It took us quite a while to tour the grounds, because they’re large but also because there’s a very calm, welcoming feeling to the place, so we took our time - once again this is not a faceless conglomerate owning a museum, it’s a (very!) large house with a very large garden, which is clearly used as a place to stay. Even if it is somewhere the owners spend the odd weekend rather than a family home, it feels like the latter.
This used to be the chai - it is now used for events (weddings can be organised here):
The cuvier (which of course Emma had to photobomb again):
The temperature-controlled cellar:
Finally, we headed inside the château for the tasting, pausing to admire the staircase and the “interesting” decoration:
We tasted three vintages: 2015, 2016 and 2017. We each had a little booklet with a guide to each vintage - much the same as I imagine that visiting journalists are given.
We started with the 2017: very floral nose, with some plums and cherry, then a pretty, elegant mouthful of cherry and blackberry. Already promising, much better than I expected, but as Marion explained, they hadn’t been hit by the April frost - the river is at the bottom of the grounds and usually protects the estate, or at least the main “clos”.
Then the 2016: in a closed patch, with a nose which was clearly slightly out of joint that day, and a rather tight palate, but looking past that, it was clearly more concentrated and more focused than the 2017 and one with a long future ahead.
Finally the 2015: this came as quite a surprise - we all just went “Wow” from the first sniff - a very bright, arresting bouquet of rose petal and spring flowers, also sweet red cherry and strawberry - I didn’t take notes but I can still remember, such was the strong impression. On the palate, oodles of fresh fruit, but in a restrained, elegant style that is eminently classical and civilized. Perhaps a little less concentrated than the 2016, but a lot more fun.
Of the three, our favourites were unanimously 2015 followed by 2017. I have neither so I will be scouting for some this winter. But I was impressed by all three - this is clearly a well-run estate making classically styled wines with modern techniques.
Once again, it was a memorable experience which I highly recommend. There are several types of visit to choose from - we chose the Verticale, hence the three wines, which cost 150 euros for the four of us. For a comprehensive and truly private visit (there was nobody there apart from Marion) this was good value, especially since she very kindly gave us a couple of very interesting books before we left - one by a French architecture expert on the château itself and a book of recipes elaborated by a French chef.
I’ve always liked rather than loved Issan and the visit certainly changed that.
After our visit we bought sandwiches at an excellent boulangerie outside Macau, which Marion had recommended and as usual enjoyed them next to the river. We then went to our final visit of our holiday:
Château Dauzac
This was supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip. I had booked a special visit and themed training session - Be An Oenologist For A Day, which was supposed to feature a class in blending by Dauzac’s Technical Manager, where we would all learn how blending is done and how the different components affect the choice of the final blend. It sounded excellent, especially for our girls.
In retrospect I should have been concerned by their insistence that I pay the 180 euros in advance.
Anyway, when we arrived it felt off straightaway. Dauzac does not have the great location and grounds of Issan, it’s all rather bare, nor does it feel lived in, because it’s not. I didn’t take any photos.
We were greeted by a perfectly charming hostess, Katarina, who is Ukrainian. We did the usual tour of the grounds, chai and cuvier, during which it was fairly obvious that sadly, I knew more about Dauzac’s history than she did. We did discover one point of interest - Dauzac has started producing a small amount of franc de pied cabernet sauvignon, using amphoras rather than barrels - but which are apparently going to be sold for 1500€ a bottle.
As I had suspected from the start, the blending class was not with the technical director, who was nowhere to be seen, but with Katarina. It took place around a coffee table in the middle of a hallway and consisted of three 2021 samples - cabernet sauvignon, merlot and the press wine. This was nothing like the offer presented on the website, which showed seven samples being blended - I had assumed we would smell and taste the differences that the various barrel makers bring. Anyway, we did the blending - which boiled down to tasting each sample and then deciding on our own mixes, before which we were “schooled” in the different aromas using one of those wine aroma kits. We then could compare our blends with the actual 2021 final blend.
Basically it was a bit of a nightmare all round - we were interrupted twice by a large party of visitors, on their way into the cuvier and on their way back. 2021 is a fairly unimpressive wine anyway, so our blends were no better and we learnt nothing about the real techniques involved. We did taste the 2017 too, which was like an older version of the 2021 - drab and unripe.
We really just wanted to get out of there so we speeded up the blending, took our samples and left.
It was a disappointing way to end our visits. I did consider writing to complain and to ask for a partial refund, but I didn’t want to create a problem for our hostess, who is a nice girl put in an impossible position (and I really couldn’t do that to a Ukrainian in the current circumstances). It’s also a shame because I like Dauzac’s wines. Anyway, we had had three great visits so one bad one didn’t matter.
P.S. I wanted to point out something - the new site is far easier for posting photos, but it has another huge advantage over the old one - your draft is automatically saved. During the rather long writing of all this, Chrome crashed three times - I would have lost the lot before - not now. Also, it allows you to write a long post over several days - so a big thumbs-up!
