Chateau Grand Mayne Saint Emilion Grand Cru (Grand Cru Classé) 2014

A vineyard overlooked by a manor built at the end of the 16th century, Mayne can trace its 200-year history back to the Laveau family who acquired it in 1685. The attentive and loving care of Jean Laveau raised the vineyard to the highest level, as evidenced by the wine prices and praises in the Féret, the reputed 1846 Bordeaux wine directory.Together with Figeac and Soutard, Mayne was at the time one of the most important estates in St. Émilion.

With no direct heirs, the Laveau empire was eventually dispersed amongst family heirs. Various owners succeeded until the beginning of the 20th century when the Nony family became the owners of what had become “Grand Mayne.”It was in fact in 1934 that Jean Nony, a successful wine merchant established in the Chartrons trading district of Bordeaux, acquired the property from Noël Berbudeau.

Grand Mayne represents a homogeneous group of stone buildings. Built in the 16th and 17th centuries, the château towers the vineyard where it sits.The outhouses adjoining the château were built in the 17th century with stone excavated from regional limestone quarries. The architects sought to protect the château from intrusions and westerly ocean winds by constructing a long building facing due west, whose rhythm is harmoniously broken in its centre by a close, paved semicircular arch through which horse-drawn carriages could ride in.

Over the years, a monumental wine cellar and outbuildings have completed this vast complex bordered by long rubble stone walls.As for the vineyard of Grand Mayne, it grows in a single unit in an ideal natural amphitheatre on the hillside and at the foot of St. Émilion.

The 17 hectare St. Emilion vineyard of Grand Mayne is planted to 78% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The vines are on average close to 30 years of age.

At 55 meters above sea level, ideally facing south and west, the vines are planted on a clay-limestone hillside and, at its foot, on clay soil to the south and clayey sand soil to the west. The situation and typology of these soils offer great potential to the vineyard. Located exactly in the geographic centre of the commune of St. Émilion, the château is 1.5 km west of the village at the foot of a limestone plateau.The rigorous work of the vineyard is of the utmost importance at Grand Mayne.

Each parcel of vines is considered a wine-growing entity in its own right. Thus, the vines on the slopes are grassed to prevent erosion while those on clay soil and clayey-sand soil are ploughed.Bordelaise pruning, disbudding and suckering, green harvests, double manual leaf-thinning, plot management are all technical choices that give the grapes the best qualitative prospects.

The 2014 Grand-Mayne has a fragrant bouquet, perhaps more refined than in recent years with dried rose petals and incense fusing with the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, crisp acidity and a gentle build towards a vivid, lightly spiced finish that maintains impressive delineation, perhaps less extracted and more precise than wines of the past. This is a superb Grand-Mayne that represents a subtle change in tack for the estate—one that this writer approves of. Tasted on three occasions and consistent every time.

"Lovely fruit clarity here - bold, sweet but not confected - pure pleasure. Then the palate is surprisingly fierce in tannin, giving a grainy, mouth-coating texture. While the fruit is very tempting to drink now, this is one to lay down for a rainy day. "

Jancis Robinson

Awards:

93/100 Robert Parker

93/100 Wine Advocate

94/100 Wine Enthusiast

92/100 James Suckling

92/100 Vinous

91/100 Wine Spectator

90/100 Decanter