Léoville Poyferré | Château presentation & best vintages

Comptoir des Millésimes today presents the guide to Château Léoville Poyferré. Traditionally, Bordeaux estates have been named after their owners or founders. But the history of the path leading to the Château Léoville Poyferré is a long and winding road shared with the Château Léoville Las Cases from 1638.

Jean de Moyté, a member of the Bordeaux Parliament, owned a Bordeaux vineyard. Moytie named it Mont-Moytie. Mont-Moytie was one of the first Médoc châteaux to produce wine with the Château Margaux and the Tour de Saint-Lambert, known today as the Château Latour .

The estate remained in the family for almost 100 years. Through marriage, the estate became part of the de Gascq family. Alexandre de Gascq renamed Mont-Moytie Léoville or Lionville.

> Great vintages of Léoville Poyférré in stock

 

 

Complete guide to Château Léoville Poyferré

The Domaine de Léoville was at the forefront of Bordeaux vineyard management at the time. At first, some of their ideas seemed strange to many growers, but today, many of their viticultural practices are still widely used.

For example, they changed the grape varieties in the vineyards to allow for vines producing smaller berries, which gave the wine more concentration. They trellised the rows of pine trees. They began aging their wine in oak barrels, which they cleaned with a sulfur solution.

While we take these practices for granted today, back then, they were crazy ideas! When Alexandre de Gascq, who regularly bought Bordeaux vineyards, died, Léoville was one of the largest Bordeaux vineyards, with over 200 hectares!

The Saint-Julien estate was divided up in 1840. Pierre Jean de Las Cases, the eldest son, received one share, which became Château Léoville Las Cases. His sister Jeanne passed on her share to her daughter, wife of Baron Jean-Marie Poyferré de Cérès. This was the birth of what we know as Léoville Poyferre. At first, the wines were sold under the name Baron de Poyferre.

While the vineyards were separated, the buildings remained connected, as they are today. In fact, the parking lots for both châteaux are shared spaces. You park in one or the other to visit the other. It's a unique arrangement in the Médoc and the whole of Bordeaux.

After the Léoville vineyards were divided into 3 different estates: Léoville Las Cases, Léoville Barton and Léoville Poyferré, many vines remained mixed up, making the harvest somewhat chaotic from time to time.

The real modern age for the Léoville Poyferré family came in the 1920s, when the Cuvelier family bought the estate from the Lalande family.

 

 

Château Léoville Poyférré : today

The change came in 1979 with the arrival of Didier Cuvelier, who became the first member of his family to take charge of Léoville Poyferre. Didier Cuvelier first trained and went to school to study accountancy before starting to learn about wine.

His teacher was Professor Emile Peynaud. It was a fortuitous decision for the estate, as Didier Cuvelier's wines have once again put Léoville Poyferre on the map for wine lovers the world over.

Among the first changes made by the 26-year-old Didier Cuvelier was that of Emile Peynaud. This was quickly followed by a modernization of the winemaking facilities at their Left Bank estate. A larger operation involved extracting and replanting 20 hectares of vines, considerably reducing their production for years to come. Michel Rolland joined the team in 1994.

The positive changes in Léoville Poyférré's wine can easily be seen by tasting the wine. The rapid leap in quality first appeared in 1982. However, Didier Cuvelier was not the first to introduce innovation to the château.

Indeed, Château Léoville Poyferré was one of the first Bordeaux châteaux to use pine stakes to treat their vines. It's commonplace today, but not two centuries ago. He was also one of the first Bordeaux producers to rinse their barrels with sulfur to protect their wines from damage caused by the shipping and aging process.

This is clearly one of the most interesting properties in Saint-Julien and the Médoc today. As we mentioned earlier, much of the credit goes to owner Didier Cuvelier. How did this happen?

As the wines are produced in the vineyard, much of the improvement is due to the fact that in 1979, Didier Cuvelier launched a nineteen-year replanting program for the vineyard.

When replanting began, around 30% of the vineyard was planted at Léoville Poyférré. Much of the land lay fallow. Since those early days, the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the vines has increased and the first plantings of Petit Verdot have taken place.

Under Didier Cuvelier's intelligent management, the vineyard has almost doubled in size, from 48 hectares to 80 planted hectares.

In 2014, a new facility was built on the property, celebrating the ancient design of the modernized building. It is a long rectangle with a small tower on both sides. This is quite similar to the original design of the estate.

Following the 2017 vintage, Didier Cuvelier retired. Sara Lecompte Cuvelier, Didier Cuvelier's niece and Anne Cuvelier's sister, took over management of the estate.

 

 

Vineyards in Saint Julien

The 60 hectares of Saint Julien de Léoville Poyferre vineyards are planted with 68% of Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% of Merlot, 5% of Cabernet Franc and 2% of Petit Verdot. Remember, these are only the vines used for Léoville Poyférré, not Moulin Riche.

This marks a fairly significant change in the vineyard since the early 1960s. Back then, the percentage of Merlot was much higher, perhaps close to 50% with Cabernet Sauvignon at around 30%, while the rest of the vineyard was planted to Cabernet Franc. .

Interestingly, the Léoville Poyferré vineyard is so sparsely populated that sometimes, when the Petit Verdot is ripe, these grapes can also be used for Léoville Poyferré. The terroir is mainly gravel, with sand, clay and limestone in the soil.

For Cabernet Sauvignon, their best vineyard plots are located south of the fortified Grand Clos plot next to Léoville Las Cases. For Merlot, the clay and gravel near Léoville Barton are perhaps their best vineyard plots.

You can divide it into 7 different blocks, fairly scattered throughout the appellation. These blocks can be subdivided into 43 distinct parcels. They have several good neighbors, as their vines intermingle with Château Léoville Las Cases, Château Léoville Barton, and to the north, they hit Château Pichon Lalande on the border of the Pauillac appellation .

The majority of vineyards are located in a few large plots, with the last remaining plots close to the Médoc road, also known as D2. Vineyards further inland are generally located in Moulin Riche and Pavillon de Léoville Poyferre.

However, this terroir is often the source of their best Petit Verdot, which can be difficult to ripen. Interestingly, parts of their vineyards are dotted with vines belonging to Léoville Barton. Vine density is 8,500 vines per hectare.

Although the Léoville Poyferre estate was modernized in 1984, they have continued to improve and renovate it again and again. In 2010, in time for the harvest, the winery at Léoville Poyferre was completely renovated.

They replaced 10 large vats with 20 new double-skin stainless steel vats with capacities ranging from 60 hectolitres to 165 hectolitres, for a total of 56 vats. This allows very precise vinification, plot by plot. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrels.

However, it's important to note that even with all the modernizations and renovations that have recently taken place at Léoville Poyferre, as they share a parking lot with Léoville Las Cases, which has necessitated the location of the cellar on one side of the street, while the barrel Rooms are located across the street.

They had an ingenious idea about how to move wine in barrels from tanks. They created a system of underground pipes to transport the wine safely from vats to barrels. Before the underground pipes, the wine was transported by hand into steel tanks using tractors. The wine is aged in an average of 75% new French oak barrels for 18 months before bottling.

 

 

The best vintages and style of Léoville Poyférré

A Bordeaux wine offering lush, ripe fruit with purity and concentration, a powerful, plush style. Blackcurrant, spice and black fruit aromas, truffle and tobacco flavors combined with rich, sensual textures are the hallmarks of this wine.

They've been one of the most consistent producers of high-quality Bordeaux since 2000. They've produced so many great wines that it's hard to pick a favorite.

However, the 2009 vintage stands out from previous vintages. With its elegant textures, round, silky tannins and ageing capacity, it's a Bordeaux wine to watch. Production represents nearly 20,000 cases of Saint-Julien wine per year.

The greatest vintages are : 2009, 2010, 2000, 2016, 1990, 2003, 2018, 1982, 2017.

 

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