What has changed at Château La Haye and Bellevue-Cardon since the arrival of Chris Cardon, a Flemish industrialist in the pharmaceutical world?
Fond of sports and fine wines Chris Cardon had a crush for the place when he ran the Medoc marathon. The story could have stopped then but the magic of Medoc, the vineyards sometimes overlooking the river and that can make only good wines urged him to come back. He ran once more on the D2 that unfolds its curves across the greatest Medoc chateaus, knocked at all doors to participate in the harvest, and between two strokes of shears, he found among this amphitheater of vines the former house of the priest of Pauillac. Bellevue, a château with no vineyard since the frost in 1956, settled on top of a hill overhanging the estuary, a few steps away from the two Pichons and Latour. It went straight to his heart and he purchased it. In 2012, he bought Château La Haye in Saint-Estèphe, an estate with a great potential that needed a revival. From ten hectares, La Haye grew up to nearly 20 after the acquisition of several plots of Cabernet especially, followed by the purchase of ten hectares of Château Vieux Coutelin, a Cru Bourgeois of Saint-Estèphe. He also wins an auction for 2.5 hectares for Bellevue now renamed Bellevue-Cardon, while Pichon Comtesse and Latour keep their eyes on these ideally located plots of land.
The Cardon era can now start. For a long time, the people from Bordeaux made up truths about the Medoc terroirs. The Margaux developed a feminine style, the Pauillacs had to be masculine, and the Saint-Estèphes represented a kind of powerfulness. And had this to be forever … would the wine escape its creator? It is commonly said that the terroir dominates. But the people from elsewhere do not see things that way. Chris Cardon loves challenges and started his wine quadriathlon, studying every plot of land and investing in new barrels and a new winery to work by micro-plot selection: “What I want to make is a more feminine Saint-Estèphe. I play on the yields, the maturity of the harvest, the intimacy of the wine through the wood that holds it. And with our enologist Eric Boissenot we chose for softer extractions, separating the juice of the must that we then categorize like spices and sprinkle like a cook during the blends. This enables to add density and their ranking according to their quality (more or less tannic) thus offers a range to play with.”
Visionary and daring, Chris Cardon, helped by his stepson Lloyd Lippens, intends to add another chapter to La Haye's history, different from the one that talks about Henri II and Diane de Poitiers' rendezvous. Their monogram, H and D interlaced, are engraved in the stone at the entrance of the chateau, and is used on the various labels of chateau's wines.
But La Haye is also a name that has gone to conquer the world and thrills the wine lovers fond of terroir and character. The ambition: to express the specific Château La Haye terroir and apply for the rank of Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel. A long-term work. According to the owners, the La Haye spirit can be defined by the structure, the balance, the elegance and melting texture. It immediately stands out by its purity and remarkable energy of the 2012 vintage, breaking with the former austerity. Saught after by the trade of Bordeaux, Cardon also took over the marketing – half is sold En Primeur. The rest goes to Belgium of course but a project of overseas export has been initiated. And it will be the same strict requirement for the first vintage of Bellevue-Cardon (90% Cabernet) “that aims at the best Pauillac can offer. And if a vintage is not up to our expectations, we will not produce Bellevue-Cardon that year”, Chris Cardon states.
The 2015 is a top quality wine, dense, fleshy. And is the pride of the family because, more than a matter of yields, wine is first a pleasure.
Bénédicte Chapard
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