Château Troplong Mondot

Château Troplong Mondot is owned by the Valette family, who have brought it into the modern era. Alexandre Valette, a wine merchant in Paris, purchased the estate established by Raymond Troplong. He already owned Château La France in Fronsac and, in Quinsac, he acquired Château Pavie shortly thereafter. In 1980, Alexandre’s great-granddaughter, Christine, took over the estate. Ten years later, her husband, Xavier Parienté, joined her. Together, they continued to improve the vineyard and cellars and to enhance the château. In 2006, all those years of effort and hard work paid off: Troplong-Mondot was named a First Growth.

The vineyards of Château Troplong Mondot extend over thick limestone bedrock beneath a layer of rich clay, and the groundwater present in the subsoil combine to provide the old vines of Troplong Mondot (with an average age of 35 years, the oldest being over 90) with the limited fertility necessary for grand crus. This clay-limestone soil, typical of the Saint-Emilion hillside vineyards, is mixed with sedimentary fragments of flint and limestone. It is perhaps to this unique composition that we owe the splendid color and beautiful concentration of this wine.

The management of Château Troplong Mondot follows traditional methods within a framework of sustainable viticulture (no herbicides, no chemical fertilizers, no insecticides). Plowing, Bordeaux-style pruning by Mr. Cordeau using the two-cane method. Green pruning in the spring. In July, leaf removal followed by thinning to allow for optimal grape ripening. Hand-harvested, with picking dates determined by three criteria: ripeness checks, tasting of the berries, and the different terroirs of the estate.