Château Bellegrave

Located in the south-west of the appellation, on a plateau, this family estate, run from father to son, owes its name to the fine gravel that makes up its soil, resting on a subsoil that is also gravelly with clay and iron oxides. Typical of Pomerol, it is this that gives the wines that particular sap that contributes to the renown of this A.O.C. However, the terroir alone, even planted with the finest grape varieties, cannot give fine grapes and therefore good wines if it is not supported.
“In wine, after the terroir, the essential is the grape. If you bring in fine, healthy, ripe grapes, you are assured of a problem-free vinification and of making a great wine,” quite rightly asserts Jean-Marie Bouldy, the master of the house.
At Bellegrave, the vines are grown organically, certified by Ecocert since 2009. During their growth and development, systematic manual leaf removal is carried out early so that the grapes “get used to the sun’s rays” and benefit through “these little windows” from a beneficial airing that can only increase and preserve their health. Likewise, thinning (or green harvesting) is carried out, which allows each bunch to ripen well. Treatments are thought through and measured, in order to protect the environment as well as possible.
The crop is always harvested and sorted by hand. The vats, equipped with temperature control, allow serious and permanent control of fermentations and macerations. Before being bottled, the wines are aged for 20 to 22 months in a new barrel cellar built solely with natural materials (brick, terracotta, lime, untreated Dordogne poplar wood and Corrèze Douglas fir).
A third of the oak casks are replaced with new ones at each harvest.
Thus Bellegrave, a powerful, fine and generous Pomerol, has a soul: beyond its fruit and spice aromas, it reveals a family in love with its terroir, devoted to its vines, captivated by its work, which knows how to combine with its know-how the advantages of tradition and new techniques, while shielding itself from an excessive and showy modernity.