CHATEAU GADET-TERREFORT Medoc

Chateau Gadet-Terrefort, a member of the 36 strong Cru Artisans association, is situated just north of Lesparre, in the northern Medoc. Its 16 hectares of vines are located on argilo-calcaire soils in Ordonnac, just north of Chateau Calon-Segur and near to Chateau Potensac, with another parcel at Gaillan on sand-gravel soils. Anais Bernard is the third generation of her family to take the helm here, and against the not unusual initial headwinds of her father has taken the vineyard organic (fully certified from the 2022 vintage), a move which has rewarded enormously in terms of the health, vigour, yield, maturity and malady-resistance of the vines. No chemical herbicides, pesticides or fungicides are thus used, and nourishment for the soil comes from her own small herd of cattle and the use of a range of biodiverse cover crops. The wines, comprising 70% Cabernet-Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, are vinified under their indigenous yeasts with a short period of prefermentive cold maceration to gently draw fruit rather than tannin, with a 2 week cuvaison followed by a year in oak barriques, of which some 20% are renewed each year. This is beautifully made, uncomplicated claret, made conscientiously and with care, and provides a drink which is at once familiar, thoroughly agreeable and refreshing in a way which somehow typifies all that we used to love about claret, crafted in a fashion which sits comfortably with more contemporary sensibilities and tastes.