Like Bellevue and Belair, there are several châteaux with the name Bellegrave in Bordeaux, which can be somewhat confusing. The most famous is Belgrave, the 5th growth in Saint-Laurent-Médoc.
Bellegrave in Pauillac is a small estate (8.4 hectares of vines) at the entrance to the city of Pauillac when coming from Bordeaux. The château building is small and very attractive, as are the gardens that surround it.
The vineyard, wedged between Latour, Pichon Baron, and Lynch Bages is composed of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon and 39% Merlot. As its name suggests, the soil is quite gravelly.
Bellegrave was bought in 1997 by Jean-Paul Meffre who originally had a vine nursery in the Gard department. His family had previously acquired two châteaux in Saint-Julien: du Glana and Lalande.
I have rarely drunk Bellegrave, but thought that a bottle from the 2015 vintage might be ready to go, so I decanted it two hours before lunch and gave it a whirl. I’m sad to report that I came away rather disappointed. This was the proverbial “doughnut wine” in that it started out big and spherical, but showed very weak on the middle palate and, truth to tell, on the aftertaste as well. It was certainly ready to drink, unlike the big guns in Pauillac. The technical fact sheet for the 2015 vintage at Bellegrave speaks of a very good year with just the right amount of water stress and very high yield (57 hectoliters/hectare). It may just be that high yield that accounts for the rather diluted quality of the wine.
More’s the pity since the terroir is top-notch and the chateau is lovely, as is the label. I can’t help but wonder what the results would have been under different management and with different winemaking. That having been said, it would be unfair to paint the château’s production as mediocre from having tasted just one vintage. I will certainly try to sample more recent ones when the opportunity presents itself.