Readers Take Note! - Robert Parker

It's not often that you are able to watch the rise of a wine from its birth to stardom but this has been the case with Château La Fleur Morange. It's very first vintage was only in 1999 and now 10 years later this little garagiste wine is rubbing shoulders amongst the big boys. La Fleur Morange has received more accolades this year than any other and the prestigious wine critic Robert Parker has alerted wine lovers the world over to take note:

"Claude Gros, the talented oeonologist responsible for the high quality wines of Château de la Negly in Langudoc Roussillon, also supervises the wine making of Château La Fleur Morange. This garage wine is the result of 2 hectares planted with 70% Merlot and 3o% Cabernet Franc from vines of 70 years old on average. The estate practices rigorous green harvesting, micro oxygenation, pigeage and elevage on the lees. The results are impressive as the 2005 testifies, the most beautiful year of this relatively recent property. Readers take note!"

Les Notes, Parker, Des Vins de Bordeaux

La Fleur Morange sprang from humble beginnings – it's made by Jean-François and Veronique Julien, a former cabinet maker and his wife. Veronique hails from a long standing family of wine makers and Jean-François not only fell in love with his wife – but with wine making. They began from scratch but thanks to Jean-François' meticulous and painstaking quest for perfection the vines they began with were something slightly special. They are 100 years old and the 4 acre vineyard is of a unique and rare terroir that contributes to the greatness of his wines. The soil that the Julien's vines grow in is the only complex mixture known to exist in Saint Emilion and is a combination of sand, clay and chalk over an iron oxide sub soil (crasse de fer) which is 15.7 inches (40 cm) below the surface. This subsoil rests on top of limestone bedrock.

This year Saint Emilion celebrated the Julien's phenomenal success and La Fleur Morange's contribution to the wines of this famous appellation. To honour the quality of the Julien's work and the rise of La Fleur Morange to international acclaim throughout the world's media, the Jurade of Saint Emilion, the Mayor and the town gathered together to mark the occasion with a dinner for 250 plus in attendance.

I have been lucky enough to have been involved as a passionate supporter of the Julien's for the past 7 years when I first encountered La Fleur Morange at the UGCI Tastings in the April of 2003. Casting my mind back to when I first tasted the wine I thought it was excellent and when I found out the price I thought it will give some very noble names a good run for their money and quality. How could a wine this good be unrecognised? I knew back then that this wine had the potential to reach greater heights in the world of wine and I heartily agree with Parker's comment “to take note!”

I wonder if in a few years time wine lovers around the world will be congratulating themselves that they did so as only 350 cases a year are made? La Fleur Morange belongs in any serious wine lovers cellar as it is a beautiful wine to drink with its deep crimson colour, abundance of fruit on the nose and in the mouth complimented by its structure and elegance. It will compliment most dishes containing game, beef and lamb and will as tantalize the palates of admirers of any good exceptional Bordeaux /Saint Emilion. As far as quality is concerned it is up there amongst the best. For Jancis Robinson in a blind tasting to mistake it for Ausone really says it all!

If you have the opportunity to do so I heartily recommend that you discover this wine as well as the second wine of the estate ‘Mathilde’ before others get there first. I can assure you it will be love at first taste!

My congratulations go out to Jean-François and Veronique for not only making this great wine but for the worldwide recognition their efforts are now receiving. Bravo to them both!