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Every year, the Coupe des Crus de Saint-Emilion honors 24 winners.
These men and women work day after day to produce wines that live up to the quality and environmental commitment of Saint-Emilion wines.
Discover the portraits of these properties in Lussac Saint-Emilion, Puisseguin Saint-Emilion, Saint-Emilion and Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, as well as Grands Crus Classés.
Today, Cédric Pla, Director of the Castel family estates, presents this Saint-Emilion Grand Cru: Château Montlabert .
2024 Favourites – Château Montlabert
You may not know Château Montlabert yet, but you certainly know the Châteaux that surround the estate.
Located between Figeac and Cheval Blanc, the estate has made a name for itself over the years.
Cédric Pla has been working here for many years. Today, as Director, he tells us all we need to know about this 2024 winner of the Coupe des Crus de Saint-Emilion!
I’m the Director of the Castel family estates, one of whose flagship properties is Château Montlabert, and I’m involved in producing the highest quality grapes and winemaking, as well as promoting the wines to customers.
If I had to sum it up in 3 words, I’d start by saying a lot of “patience”, “precision” and a lot of “sharing” too.
Montlabert has seen many twists and turns in its history, as an old 16th-century property and former Figeac tenant farm. Its name arrived in the 17th century. It has always belonged to the great names of Libourne and Bordeaux wine families, notably the De Cazes family. Passed from hand to hand over the centuries, until 2008 when it came into the hands of the Castel family, who have taken great care of this exceptional terroir. In 2019, we created a winery in keeping with this terroir, which in 2022 enabled us to be classified as a Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé.
What makes Château Montlabert so special is first and foremost its exceptional terroir, located between Figeac and Cheval Blanc, with draining sands and underlying clays that give this wine its very special identity. We also have a high-precision winery that enables us to make parcel-based wines and bring out the characteristics of Montlabert: finesse and elegance.
Château Montlabert is designed to welcome business and professional clients for major events. But it also caters for private customers, who can visit the Château, take part in tastings and wine and food pairings, in a Château designed to welcome and share. This approach has been rewarded with the Best of Wine Tourism award.
It’s not just a beautiful wine, it’s a great wine, it can be drunk young after 3-4 years, it’s also a wine for laying down that can go on for 10-15 years, depending above all on individual taste and the pleasure you’ll derive from rediscovering Château Montlabert.
I can’t resist telling you about the menu our chefs concocted for the Primeur dinner:
It’s important to be constantly challenged, and the Coupe des Crus also allows blind tasting, so we can compare ourselves as objectively as possible. At Saint-Emilion, we have a classification which means that every 10 years we are called into question, so it’s important to have regular updates on the quality of our wines.
We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished, and proud to be recognized by our peers who tasted and graded us.
We hope you’ll come and meet us at Château Montlabert, for a visit or a bucolic lunch, to share our passion for wine and our love of Saint-Emilion!
