Located close to Château Troplong-Mondot, East of the Saint-Emilion plateau, La Mondotte was considered a rather lackluster St-Emilion estate until it was purchased by the Counts von Neipperg in 1971 (at the same time as Château Canon La Gaffelière).

The wonderful potential of La Mondotte's remarkable clay-limestone terroir only came to light several years later.

The building of a new vat room (with wooden vats), combined with a sea change in vineyard management, helped to give this small (4.5 hectare) estate wings in the 1990s.

Some people consider it a "garage wine". In order to symbolize a break with the past, Stephan von Neipperg dropped the name "Château" in 1996, and it is now called simply "La Mondotte".

The vineyard are looked after with almost obsessive care. The grapes are hand picked into small crates and sorted twice both before and after de-stemming. Extraction is enhanced by punching down the cap. Aging takes place on the lees in new oak barrels, without fining or filtering.

Since 1996, La Mondotte has produced wines in a unique, ripe, rich, expressive style that is nevertheless always well-balanced.

In the Bottle

Considered a ho-hum estate before the de Neipperg purchase, La Mondotte has become one of the mythical wines of Saint-Emilion in just a few years.

Since 1996, the well-known winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt has contributed a great deal to making the most of La Mondotte's remarkable terroir.

Yields are kept extremely low to produce a wine of unsurpassed purity and concentration. Very rare (only 8,500 bottles produced a year), la Mondotte 2005, 2000, and 1998 will probably be seen a benchmarks for the Right Bank. However, the 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008 La Mondotte are only slightly less complex. These are simply marvelous wines that all wine lovers should attempt to try once.

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La Mondotte