Chateau Gadet-Terrefort

Chateau Gadet-Terrefort

Anais Bernard grew up on this family farm with the vines, but also the cattle, sheep, pigs, horses and chickens. Established by her grandparents in 1921, such a mixed agricultural enterprise is not unusual in the northern Medoc even today and Anais was clearly brought up to be very familiar with the concept of hard work. Duly qualified with a diploma in viticulture and oenology from Bordeaux, she has been able to focus on the wines here and take them to a new level, reflecting better vineyard management. While their 2016 vintage was satisfactory, the 2019 is clearly better than that and we were greatly surprised by the quality and promise of the 2021, generally regarded as a difficult vintage for Bordeaux. We therefore hope that we have found a new Medoc wine to take the place of Chateau Puy Castera, now delisted by us after more than three decades following its acquisition by less sympathetic new owners. The rather new classification of ‘Cru Artisan’ here is defined by a requirement that the owner of the vineyard directly participates in all elements of the business, from the viticulture and the cellar management through to the estate bottling and direct marketing of the finished wines. From 2019, Anais adopted the tenets of ‘agriculture biologique’ along which the whole estate has been managed as from 2023. This is a very worthy new addition to our Bordeaux list, proof that there is still great value to be found in the region if you search hard enough