Bordeaux Château La Connivence, Pomerol
Given the size of the Pomerol appellation, it is very rare that a bright new star emerges from the wings rather than an older property being rediscovered, yet in 2008 this is precisely what happened with Château La Connivence. We are proud to be the exclusive UK importers - this really is an insider's wine.
Aléxandre de Malet Roquefort, owner of the St Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé Château La Gaffelière, had been looking for a property in Pomerol for some while when he teamed up with his now co-owners and respected ex-footballers, Mathieu Chalmé and Johan Micoud, both passionate about wine, who had, in fact, been chasing the same ambition.
They landed on a tiny property of 1.45 ha on the western side of the appellation, made up of light sand on top of two layers of gravel - one fine, one coarse. This is a micro-Château like few others, where everything is individually managed from the health of the vines to the harvest of the individual bunches as and when they are ready. indeed, owner Aléxandre describes it as “a small garden”.
Their first vintage was in 2008, and just over ten vintages later, the Connivence team feel that they are finally getting under the skin of their tiny vineyard as the vines mature and the first vintages, in turn, start to evolve. When they bought the land, everything needed to tbe replanted, so the early vintages of La Connivence were made from unusally juvenile vines which, nonetheless, were producing world-class quality even at such a tender age.
As one would expect with a wine of such calibre as La Connivence, not all the grapes will be included in the final blend every year, necessitating a second wine to take up the slack, hence La Belle Connivence was introduced. Production is tiny at around 1,000 bottles per year and the fruit comes from the same vines as La Connivence itself, not from other plots of land. It follows the same rigorous vineyard and cellar processes right up until the moment of blending. Once selected for La Belle Connivence, the wine spends slightly less time in new barrels in order to make it more approachable for earlier drinking.
Click here for current availability or call us on 01353 721 999. For marketing queries, please contact Laura Taylor at laura@privatecellar.co.uk
