Château Le Puy

On the same rocky plateau as Saint-Émilion and Pomerol, overlooking the magnificent Dordogne valley, located on the site that the ancients called “the hillside of marvels” for the excellence of its growth, the Château du Puy estate is the second-highest geodetic point in the département, at an altitude of 110 m.
The Amoreau family has farmed the Château du Puy estate, from father to son, since 1610. Located on the remains of a Gallic oppidum where a large population practised subsistence crops, perhaps even including the vine, the site was known earlier for the quality of its production of knapped prehistoric tools (axes, clubs…). The flint-knapping field, about 100 m long by 20 m wide, was just behind the present main cellar.
Today, as in the past, the vines are cultivated in a natural way according to ancestral methods, that is to say without the addition of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides or pesticides (a method known as “organic biodynamic”).
At the hand harvest, the grapes are sorted. Particular attention is paid to ensure that the grapes are not crushed before arriving at the vat room.
Ageing takes place in foudres and oak barrels for two years. Clarification occurs by natural settling. To remove the lees resulting from spontaneous sedimentation, the wine is racked by gravity every 3 to 4 months. Bottling is then carried out with great care in the middle of a waning moon, after fining with fresh egg whites if necessary: heavy bottles, top-quality corks, necks waxed in the old way. The longevity of the Château du Puy vintages, sometimes more than thirty years, is due to their natural balance and to storage conditions appropriate for the bottles: temperature, light, humidity.
The characteristics of the Château du Puy wines are: a brilliant colour with an orange tinge in the hue, even for young vintages, an intense bouquet characterised by the elegance and delicacy of its aromas, and an incomparable velvetiness of its tannins on the palate, coming exclusively from the skin of the berries without any addition of tannins from new oak.
Thanks to the roundness of its body, the elegance of its aromas, the velvetiness of its tannins and the variety of its vintages, Château du Puy naturally and wonderfully accompanies dishes with sweet and delicate flavours as well as spicier dishes with strong tastes.
The ageing of all the Château du Puy vintages takes place in its own cellars, thus offering for sale a remarkable choice of vintages from 2005 back to 1917.
Château du Puy also offers a “Prestige” range: magnum (1.5 l), double-magnum (3 l), jeroboam (5 l), imperial (6 l), salmanazar (9 l), balthazar (12 l), nebuchadnezzar (15 l), melchior (18 l).
Finally, after years of research and experimentation, Château du Puy has been making red and white wines called Barthélémy, Marie-Cécile and Marie-Élisa since the 1998 vintage, vinified and aged in barrels for 24 months without added sulphur.
All of the taste qualities of its wines and of its services make Château du Puy a remarkable and rare growth.