Travel

Vineyard for little prince
«Vinnaya Karta» №6 (54) July 2004

Having heard the name of Saint-Exupery in the Maison des Vins de Bergerac, my memories happily brought a romantic image of the little prince from the Le Petit Prince story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Caught by the surprise, I learnt that this name matching was not incidental.

«The same family!» — exclaimed an assistant in the Maison des Vins. «Go there, it is only a 10-minute drive from Bergerac, and they have lots of stories to tell. And the wines are one of the best in their appellation...» Intrigued, I set off to Chateau de Tiregand to find out things from Count Pierre de Saint-Exupery and to taste his wines.

So here I am, in the tasting hall of an old XVIIth century building called the Old Castle. Four hundred years earlier on this site there was a residence specially built for the son of the English king Henry III. His name was Edward Tyrgan, and Chateau de Tiregand was named in his honour. The main mansion of XVII-XIX centuries which is situated a kilometer away, is standing majestically on the top of a high hill and opens a divine view on the Dordogne river valley and the lands surrounding Bergerac.

Awaiting for the count, I am studying a small exposition and come to a detailed genealogical tree of the Saint-Exupery family. The name with nearly a thousand years of history! Looks like there is enough to tell. «Since 1482 our family started to grow in two main branches. This division is preserved up to this time. Antoine de Saint-Exupery does belong to the family, but is part of another branch, sorry to disappoint you», — explains Pierre who already started to show me his estate and winery.

Alas, a famous writer wasn’t a winemaker like other generations of the family, but the winemaking reputation of Chateau de Tiregand hasn’t become less prominent because of that. Now the chateau is managed by two brothers — Pierre who is involved in the winemaking from the vineyard to the winery, and Francois-Xavier who is in charge of the commercial side. The oenologue is Jean-Marc Dournel who has the same respect in Bergerac like Michel Rolland in Bordeaux. The chateau practices an approach called agriculture raisonnee in French. This is a way of managing the estate when the equal attention goes both to the environment and the final product.

Chateau’s vineyards are situated in the tiny appellation of Pecharmant which allows only red wines to be made. This ancient winemaking area of 400 ha with the history going back to XIth century has a special status among the vineyards of Bergerac. Its vines are growing on the so called tran, a soil of sand and gravel enclosing a deep layer of clinker-bearing clay. Thanks to it, wines have their distinctive character, elegance and finesse and great aromatic intensity and are able to develop in the bottle for rather a long time.

Chateau de Tiregand’s has a considerable for the appellation’s size vineyard of 43 ha where the vines were completely replanted after severe frost (-220) destroyed practically everything in 1956. Now the main work is done to increase the density of vines. Although the average figure on the best plots already shows 5800 vines per hectare, this is not the limit, according to Pierre, and he is going to reach the 10,000 figure.

The main wine, Chateau de Tiregand, is made from the grapes grown on the vines with an average age of 21 years. It is blended from all 4 grape varieties allowed in Pecharmant. Merlot dominates (60%) with unequal parts of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec added to it. This wine is matured in oak for one year and is marked by the roundness of structure and a good concentration of fruit. The second wine, Clos Montalbanie, has a fresh fruity taste but is somewhat unpolished because of the young age of the vines (less than 10) providing grapes for the wine. Finally, the estate is particularly proud of its cuvee Chateau de Tiregand Grand Millesime produced only in the best years. Carefully selected grapes, special vinification techniques and barrel aging for 18 months create a wine which is the signature wine not only of Chateau de Tiregand, but of the whole appellation.