Jean-Luc and Murielle Thunevin

Etablissements Thunevin

Jean-Luc Thunevin became a “star” of the wine world within less than a decade thanks to his very famous ‘garage wine’ Chateau Valandraud.

It might be a winetasting of Le Pin, a Pomerol made from a tiny vineyard that gave rise to his desire to make an exceptional wine too. Thanks to his passion for wine, his determination and his desperate eagerness, he could make his wish become real from the first vintage, in 1991, of his Chateau Valandraud.

This vintage notes the beginning of a wonderful adventure and a flashing success.

He inspired many winemakers and initiated numerous other ‘garage wines’. All these micro-cuvées realized from low yields produce concentrated wines.
Murielle, his wife, plays an important role in the success of this imposing wine. Indeed she brings the most detailed care to the vines: specific pruning adapted to each vine, deleafing to aerate the grape, green harvest to cut away the excess bunches and limit them to six for each vine-plant.

On his side, Jean-Luc Thunevin decides the harvest date once the grapes have reached the optimal maturity. For the winemaking, he adopted the Burgundy’s techniques of punching of the cap in the fermenting vat (pigeage) and stirring of the lies in the oak barrel in order to get the maximum extraction for his wines. He does no fining, no filtration, but racking barrel to barrel every three months.

Always trying to reach excellence, his work methods are extreme to produce stupendous wines: dark, ripe and opulent.

During those years of strenuous work, Jean-Luc Thunevin has been developing a know-how and proficiency that he shares with many other properties like Chateau Fleur Cardinale (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru), Château Haut-Mazeris (Fronsac et Canon Fronsac), Chateau Andréas (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru), Chateau Balestard (Appellation Bordeaux), Marojallia (Appellation Margaux) to quote only few of them. Furthermore, Jean-Luc Thunevin bought Château Bellevue de Tayac, Margaux.

Click here to visit Jean-Luc Thunevin’s Blog.

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Combier Crozes-Hermitage “Cuvee Laurent”

Domaine Combier

Grape Varieties
100% Syrah

Food Matching Note
Outstanding with rich red meat dishes, game or even hard cheese at the end of a meal.

Tasting Note
Almost opaque with a purple hue, this is classic syrah from the Northern Rhone. Rich and spicy on the nose with an underlying savoury quality, the palate is rich and spicy too, with ripe approachable tannins. The finish is long, smooth and velvety.

Vinification Note
The Cuvee Laurent is a new addition to the range from Laurent Combier and exhibits all the class and finesse that we have come to expect from this extremely talented winemaker and charming man. The syrah is all hand harvested from Laurents own immaculate vineyards and is vinified in his new cellar, equipped as one would expect with the most modern equipment.

Laurent however believes - as do many of the great winemakers - that fine wines are grown, not made, and he takes as hands off as possible approach to the winemaking, using for example wild yeasts for fermentation. The wine sees a brief period in oak before being bottled and released.

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