Château La Fleur de Boüard

Boüard…this is Hubert Boüard (of renowned Château Angélus) exhilarating take on the Néac plateau’s gravel and clay soils in Lalande-de-Pomerol, from his “rocket thruster” upside-down fermentation tanks, to his sensually expressive style of avant-garde winemaking. 

Château La Fleur de Boüard was born in 1988, when Hubert de Boüard, co-owner and longtime enologist of Château Angélus, fell for this terroir located on the hillside facing the finest Pomerol growths. Driven by the deep conviction that the terroirs of Lalande-de-Pomerol could produce exceptional wines, worthy of the greatest Bordeaux appellations, he acquired the 25-hectare vineyard in 1998, now extended to 29 hectares.

After graduating from the Bordeaux Faculty of Enology, under the tutelage of Emile Peynaud, de Boüard left Saint-Émilion to discover the vineyards and cellar techniques of the world, especially those of Burgundy.

He has always oscillated between the poles of tradition and experimentation to make wines of great finesse from perfectly ripe grapes, and is keen to point out that he what he seeks most from wine is emotion and pleasure. Since he had been at Château Angélus since 1980, La Fleur presented itself as a chance to bring his experience from all those years, but also to continue to experiment. Walking into the La Fleur’s cellar is not unlike walking into a spaceship launchpad for Mars! Twenty-eight enormous truncated cones of made from stainless steel are not only suspended – but inverted – so that the whole process of fermentation and bottling remains a gravity feed system. There are no pump-overs. This is just one example of many, in which the spirit of experimentation comes together with the deep experience of Boüard and his team have gained at Angélus.

As for the wines, we work with La Fluer’s flagship wine La Fleur de Boüard Lalande-de-Pomerol, as well as his cru wine ‘Le Plus’. And, we couldn’t resist taking a small bit of de Boüard’s latest risk, Chardonnay Vin de Pays de l’Atlantique. The house style is sensual but serious, with all wine having impeccable balance. Comparing these wines to painting, one thinks of the Venetian style during the Italian Renaissance, which gave more importance to colors over the lines found in the late Renaissance Mannerism. These are some of the finest wines coming out of Bordeaux, with not only all the experience of Hubert de Boüard and his experience at Château Angélus, but his whole team’s years of experience and inputs.