Cadillac - Côtes de Bordeaux

Château
Saint Nicolas

Located at the highest point of the village of Cardan, this family estate is set in the heart of the Côtes de Bordeaux area. Chantal Bénito-Larnaudie took over management in 2005 and works hard to produce red, dry and sweet white wines from a 40-hectare property, including 32 hectares on stream.

In 1994, Chantal’s father, owner of the Bénito transport company, bought the château and its vineyards in the locality of Le Videau in Cardan, and very soon afterwards had a winery built.

The vineyard enjoys a favourable aspect, the right wind exposure and is planted on clay-limestone soils. Some of the inclines have high gravel content and the vineyard’s configuration promotes natural drainage.

After graduating in tax law and qualifying as a lawyer, Chantal joined the family transport company. However, she longed to take care of the wine estate and in 2005, circumstances allowed her to take over the reins and become fully involved in the hands-on management of the property. To improve her grasp of the implications of her new role, from the vineyard through to bottling, she enrolled in a two-year course and passed a master’s degree in wine estate management at the Enita college. During those two years, she honed her skills in the vineyard, then in 2007 asked a friend who had graduated from the same course – Marc Daulouede – to take over technical management of the vineyards and winery. Gradually, the estate switched from bulk to bottled sales. Integrated pest management is used in the vineyards and average yields stand at 40 hectolitres per hectare.

Testimonial:

“Taking over complete control of the property and building up a clientele really was a daily challenge. I had to organise management of the estate, restructure the vineyards, switch from bulk to bottled sales, perfect wine making techniques to ramp up the quality of our Cadillac-Côtes de Bordeaux Château Saint-Nicolas, our dry white wine labelled Entre-Deux-Mers and our sweet Cadillac. It took ten years hard work to restructure the property.”

Distinguishing features:

A new direction was taken in 2008 when wine making focused more on fruit-driven wines with rounder tannins, whilst at the same time revealing signature ‘Côtes’ characteristics.

FACT SHEET

Château SAINT NICOLAS
Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux

Vineyard area: 10 hectares

Soils: clay-limestone hillside sites with high gravel content in some parcels

Varietal range: 60% Merlot, 20% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc

Consultant wine maker:  Stéphane Toutoundji