Clos des Jacobins has a dark color, deep and bright. The bouquet is powerful and mineral with notes of black fruits, chalk, blackberry and spices. On the palate, the wine is ample and rich. It shows attractive texture, very elegant and long lasting. Clos des Jacobins is a model of complexity and balance. The wine is extremely consistent and may be laid out for at least 15 years.
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Clos des Jacobins takes its name from the Dominican monks known as “Jacobins” whose convent was attached to the Church of Saint-Jacques in Paris. These Jacobins lived on the outskirts of the Saint-Emilion village and used the farm buildings to accommodate pilgrims on their way to or from Santiago de Compostela. They farmed the vineyard to produce their wine, which provided them with most of their income.
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Clos des Jacobins is located at the entrance to the medieval village in the heart of Saint-Emilion’s great terroirs. The vineyard has exceptional homogeneity and has existed as one single block of vines planted around the cellars since the 17th century. These vines are situated at the foot of the Saint-Emilion slope, where its clay soils are enhanced by the limestone scree that has eroded from the plateau above. This special location and its south-facing orientation provide a unique, early-ripening and generous terroir. The cellars have been renovated in their entirety; and the oak vats are temperature-controlled.
Having risen to the ranks of Saint-Emilion’s greatest wines between 1940 and 1950, Clos des Jacobins has been a Classified Growth since official classification began in Saint-Emilion in 1954. In more recent times it won the Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Emilion trophy in Hong-Kong in 2006 after being semi-finalist twice, before it was finalist once again in 2008.
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Appellation : Saint-Emilion Grand Cru - Grand Cru Classé
Surface Area : 8,5 hectares
Sun Exposure : South-Facing
Soil : Limestone rock, Clay and Limestone scree
Wine density : 6 500 to 8 500 vines/ha
Average age of the wines : 30 years
Cultures Practices : Reasoned with ploughing/plowing and grassing
Harvest : By hand, in small crates, optical sorting system
Ageing : 18 months - 75% new oak
Œnologist Consultant : Hubert de Bouard de Laforest.
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No detail is overlooked in each of Magali and Thibaut Decoster’s plots, which faithfully depict the Saint Emilion vineyard area, in which houses, cellars, small parcels, entrance drives, walls and vegetation are attractively interspersed and which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its viticultural landscape.
To ensure that the environment is properly conserved and preserved, care and respect for the natural environment is central to the estate’s wine-growing philosophy. Clos des Jacobins and Château la Commanderie were part of the first group to sign up to the SME environmental management system (Système de Management Environnemental) for Bordeaux wines in June 2011. Fully functional since then, the system has sought to limit the impact of business activities on the environment. It not only seeks to make vine-growing and wine-making practices more sustainable, it also covers such areas as the management of vehicles and buildings, the travelling to and fro of personnel, emergency situations and regulations compliance.
This is backed up by a common sense approach and the adopting of viticultural methods that are in tune with nature: seeding cover crops in the rows, mechanical working of the soil, the reconstitution of natural eco-systems (aided by the planting of natural hedgerows around the parcels), and the sorting of waste – a whole host of environmentally-friendly techniques that are used whenever and wherever possible.
Last but not least, with the support of the Libourne GDON (a body set up to fight harmful organisms), the wine estates of Magali and Thibaut Decoster have collectively undertaken to limit pollution, preserve bio-diversity and reduce phyto-pharmaceutical sprays. This GDON has especially developed an innovative, collective method to monitor the territory biologically, whereby an observatory is being trialled for the detection and a better anticipation of the risks relating to harmful organisms in vine-growing environments. The ultimate aim is to reduce the need for phyto-sanitary spray-product use.