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88 By Robert Parker
Tasted blind at the Valandraud vertical at the property, the 1997 Valandraud has a well-defined bouquet with earthy red berry fruit, iron filing, orange rind and touches of menthol developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with rather scrawny tannin, fully mature herbaceous fruit with a leafy, rather autumnal finish that does not have immense depth, but at least has sufficient freshness. It actually improved in the glass and yet it never quite delivered that penetration or depth of fruit on the finish. To call it "Valandraud-lite" would be too disparaging, but that is how it comes across after twenty years. Tasted December 2016.<br/>
Producer
Château Valandraud

It all started humbly on a 0.6 ha vineyard and a garage turned into a vinification cellar. Since then, Chateau Valandraud has grown to a 10.70 ha vineyard based on the clayey limestone terroir of Saint Etienne de Lisse. The vineyard is a mix if various grape varieties : 70% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Manual harvest with grape sorting by hand, followed by a densimetric sorting by Tribaie upon the harvest arrival in our bioclimatic cellar. Thermo regulated stainless steel and wooden vats. Punching of the cap, pumping over, 3 weeks maceration. Malolactic fermentation in oak barrels. Ageing varies with each vintage, from 18 to 30 months in 100% new oak barrels. The final blending also varies according the each vintage, result of the rigorous selection by our own technical team, helped in this task by Jean Philippe Fort from the Rolland team.
Dozens are working all year long to look after every vintage of Valandraud, in the vineyard and the cellars, with the same goal to achieve every year : delivering the best possible wine. Christophe Lardière manages the vineyard team, and Rémi Dalmasso, our in-house oenologist, heads the cellar team. Murielle Andraud and Jean Luc Thunevin are also on the ground, supervising all operations.