Grapes, dreams, terroir
Herzog & de Meuron have created world-class architecture. Their winery Château Bélair-Monange is yet another masterpiece.
Not many wineries can make this claim: the Château Bélair-Monange has its origins back before the French revolution. After all, the limestone blocks that went to build the medieval St.Emilion and Bordeaux came from its very cellars.
The winery was originally just called Château Bélair. In 2008 it was taken over by Jean Pierre Moueix. Owner Christian Moeuix, who also founded the Dominus Winery in California, has been developing it ever since. Many of the vineyards have been newly planted with higher stocking density and better clone material – an investment for generations. The high value of its wines in Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘B’, the second-highest classification level in St.Emilion, speaks for itself.
The tremendous aspiration of the winery is demonstrated in the new building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, who back in 1997 triggered a veritable building boom in modern wine estates with the Californian Dominus Winery. Back then, they took the dry climate of the Napa Valley and clad the winery, the length of a football pitch, with stone-filled wire baskets. The Dominus Winery became an icon. They had to replicate that success in France. The project brief was to “express the full potential of the vineyards”, including the minerality of the soil.
A modern château now graces the southern edge of the limestone plateau of Saint-Emilion. It picks up on the “mineral architecture, quarries and monolithic stone churches of Saint-Émilion” and turns centuries of tradition into a timeless manifestation; a building with mirror-image symmetry, which extends the roofline of the historic house beyond the new wine cellar and provides the crowning glory of a long reception room.
At the interface between tasting and storage, work and pleasure, visitors can catch a glimpse inside the inner workings of the winery through a round opening, in the centre of which hangs El Porís, a minimalist chandelier also designed by Herzog & de Meuron.
The complete interweaving of house and terrain is showcased in the central corridor, whose walls and ceilings feature an engraving by Albrecht Dürer in relief concrete: “Joachim and the Angel”, which is also on the label of the first wine produced here, the “Château Bélair-Monange”. It grows on limestone and blue clay and combines 90 percent Merlot with ten percent Cabernet Franc. Only the best grapes are harvested then initially fermented in stainless steel and cement tanks before being aged for up to 18 months in oak barrels. Here, visitors can see and experience how palate and eye, architecture and light form a cohesive whole that extends well into the night.