Château de Candale est de couleur profonde et très brillante. Le nez est floral, épicé avec des notes de cerise noire, de prunes, de graphite et d’herbes. La bouche est expressive, nuancée, généreuse et juteuse avec des notes de fruits noirs. Château de Candale offre une très belle complexité avec beaucoup de personnalité et d’équilibre.
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The origins of Château de Candale date back to the days of Lady Margaret of Suffolk Kendal, a descendant of Edward III, the King of England and Duke of Aquitaine. Her marriage to Count Jean de Foix allowed the latter to add to his titles that of Count of Candale (Count of Kendal).
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Château de Candale stretches over 8 hectares (nearly 20 acres) across Saint-Emilion’s famous south-facing slope. This privileged location positions the vineyard right in the centre of the appellation’s greatest clay-limestone terroir slope. The wines of Château de Candale have wonderful finesse and display a fine balance between power and elegance. Over recent years, thanks to substantial investment, the wine’s style has been further enhanced to gain even greater finesse. Château de Candale is widely recognised by enthusiasts of fine wine and has enjoyed the accolades of international wine critics and the specialised press.
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Appellation : Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Surface Area : 8 hectares
Sun Exposure : Sud
Soil : Argilo Calcaire
Wine density : 5 500 pieds/ha à 7 800 pieds/ha
Average age of the wines : 30 years
Cultures Practices : Raisonnées avec travail du sol
Harvest : Manuelles, en cagettes et tris successifs
Ageing : 12 mois - 30% de bois neuf
Œnologist Consultant : Stéphane Derenoncourt
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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.