One on One Podcast
Sources de Caudalie reaches across France
As Les Sources Hotel Group announces the purchase of five historic hotels in leading wine regions, I look at the origins of these pioneers in wine and wellness tourism and discover their exciting plans for the future.
From wine to welcome
First there was wine, Daniel and Florence Cathiard bought Château Smith Haut Lafitte in 1990, starting a new life there after moving from Eastern France. They are pioneers of wine tourism in the region, after three years renovating the estate, they moved into an 18th century chartreuse in the vines, dedicating the chateau buildings to wine production and wine tourism.
They have nurtured the estate of 87 hectares, producing red and white Pessac Léognan wines, farming sustainably on the Graves terroir and winning critical acclaim for their wines.
Inspiration
The inspiration for hospitality came from their desire to share their new home. They opened the vineyard to visitors seven days a week, for tours, tastings and workshops and quickly found the best way of sharing their wines was around a table, with food, the traditional way Bordeaux wines are tasted.
They opened the Les Sources de Caudalie hotel and spa in the grounds of the chateau in 1999 to do just that and allow guests to stay a while.
A family affair
Their two daughters have followed in their footsteps, each on their own path. In 1995 Mathilde Thomas-Cathiard and her husband, Bertrand, founded Caudalie, a hugely successful, international cosmetics company, originally inspired by and created from the byproducts of wine making at Château Smith Haut Lafitte.
Alice Tourbier-Cathiard and her husband, Jérôme, now run two hotels, the original Sources de Caudalie, in the vines of Château Smith Haut Lafitte, and Les Sources de Cheverny in the Loire Valley.
Les Sources de Caudalie started with 29 rooms, a restaurant and the original Caudalie Vinothérapie® Spa thanks to the spring waters found 540m below the estate.
Now, the hotel is a 5-star village of six buildings, all inspired by local architecture and built from local and recycled materials, with 61 rooms and suites and a Palace category. There’s a house on stilts in the small lake behind the chateau and the 1500m2 spa is built to resemble the traditional tobacco drying barns of the region. The three restaurants include the two star Michelin La Grand’Vigne** under Chef Nicolas Masse.
Redecorated this Spring by decorator Delphine Sauvaget, the hotel is a clever blend of homely and luxury, a warm family atmosphere but with palace standards – quite a combination to pull off.
In 2013, they opened La Chartreuse Du Château Le Thil. A 1 km walk away through the vines, this 18 century château is now a lodge with nine rooms and two suites. My wine tour guests love to privatise this property, hidden in its beautiful park full of ancient trees. It offers a unique French château experience, decorated in the French country chic mix of contemporary and old furniture.
After a brief flirtation with the Paris region at Les Etangs de Corot, Alice and Jérome returned to their first love, the vineyards, opening Les Sources de Cheverny in the Loire Valley in 2020 (perfect timing!) reopening post lockdown in Sept 2021. A traditional chateau deep in the forest that won its first Michelin within a year of opening.
Alice wants guests to be able to see vines from their window, remaining close to nature as part of their sustainable philosophy.
Wine and wellness tourism
Les Sources stays true to its original objective of offering guests a relaxed environment to discover wine. Each hotel is a shop window for its region as passionate sommeliers demystify local wines, giving enthusiasts the words to describe what they sense and the space to be confident doing so. Restaurants with their excellent wine lists, cellar visits, tastings and cooking classes are all part of this wine adventure.
If wine runs through their veins so does wellness with their Caudalie spas with the grape-based products and treatments and other wellness activities from cycling to yoga.
The success of Sources de Cheverny has given Alice and Jerome the confidence to launch an even more ambitious project. They have just signed the purchase of the hotel chain Les Grande Etapes de France, fulfilling their ambition to welcome guests across the leading wine regions of France, and some of the most beautiful.
History in their hands
The purchase will add five hotels to their portfolio, all stunning historical properties. Two in the Loire, Château d’Artigny in Montbazon and Choiseul in Amboise, two in Alsace, Château de l’Île in Strasbourg, and Château d’Isenbourg near Colmar and finally the stunning Château de Gilly in Burgundy. Burgundy and Bordeaux will be familiar to most wine lovers. Alsace perhaps less so? This region on the French German border runs along the Rhine with and is home to spectacular white wines, dominated by Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Grisand picturesque vineyard villages along the wine route . Château d’Isenbourg has its own 5 ha vineyard. four major grapes used for the wines of the region; Riesling, Gewurtztaminer, Muscat, Pinot Gris
Rising to the challenge
It’s an ambitious project. The hotels are all already functioning, with the capacity necessary to welcome wine tourism groups, but there’s detailed work to be done to bring them up to Les Sources exacting standards.
Alice loves this planning part, working out how best to share the region, the local culture, food, wine and history with guests. Practically, how to integrate into these unique and historic buildings necessities like air conditioning, the spas, wine bars for tastings alongside both gastronomic and more simple, local and traditional food. As Alice says, you can’t eat Michelin star cuisine every day of your stay.
And they do want guests to stay, to take the time to discover these regions, their wines and their wine makers. Reflecting that original philosophy.
Working with the same architect as for Les Sources de Cheverny, renovation will start next year (2023) on the 16th century Château de Gilly (already a 5 star hotel) in Burgundy and Château d’Isenbourg in Alsace. The objective is to reopen these historic buildings and gardens again in 2025.
I’m particularly excited by the renovation of Château de Gilly in Burgundy, I’ve stayed there a few times, touring with French Wine Explorers and loved the location, the gardens and the vaulted restaurant. I’ll also be visiting Alsace again for a wine and biking tour. I’ll see you there.
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Does Bordeaux need another wine book ?
As Stephen Brook publishes the fourth edition of his book ‘The Complete Bordeaux’, I have to ask, do we really need another book on Bordeaux?
Who cares about Bordeaux?
Hopefully you do if you’re reading this! Bordeaux is such an iconic and historic wine region, many people, including wine professionals, think they know it and don’t need to look further. Right bank: clay, limestone and merlot, left bank: gravel and Cabernet and a classification written in tablets of stone. Job done!
Or do they?
When Napa Valley Wine Academy owner, Christian Oggenfuss, asked his students (including professionals) which region in France, they most wanted to learn more about, Bordeaux was their top answer. A request he’ll be answering soon
There are already so many tomes about Bordeaux. Is there anything more to say? Thankfully, for wine educators like me, yes there is, things do move in Bordeaux, a lot and fast, as Stephen’s book clearly shows. Properties change hands, bringing with them changes both technical and marketing. The Bordeaux’ Vine and Wine Science University at the heart of the vineyard is the centre of excellence for research in vineyards and wine making, and for disseminating the information, constantly keeping wine makers and viticulturists on their toes.
Stephen Brook knows his stuff, he has written many books, not only about wine, and has received many awards including the André Simon Award in 2007 for Bordeaux: Médoc and Graves, and the Veuve Clicquot and ICP awards for Pauillac and Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics. He’s a contributing editor to Decanter magazine. He doesn’t limit himself to Bordeaux, his latest book is The Wines of Austria.
Originally published in 2007, the 3rd edition of Bordeaux was released in 2017, so he’s keeping to his 5 year updating plan.
As well as information on the appellations and portraits of properties, Stephen looks at Bordeaux’s lesser-known areas and chateaux. He urges drinkers not to give up on Bordeaux, but to give the lesser known regions more attention, regions that have benefitted from both climate change and more skilful viticulture and wine making – he’s happy to act as your Bordeaux guide.
The book is peppered with anecdotes and quotes from local wine personalities to back up his points and theories, although I beg to differ with his condemnation of Bordeaux properties for not welcoming non-professionals. That too has changed, Bordeaux has never been so open with wine tourism developing across the region. Even top properties (see the 1855 guide below).
So, what’s new Stephen?
With a re edition like this, you can compare it to previous editions to see where the biggest changes have and are taking place. In a recent Decanter article, Stephen underlined how rapidly changes take place in Bordeaux compared to Burgundy. Outsiders have always invested in Bordeaux and since the 2017 edition, just in Margaux, Cantenac-Brown, Dauzac, du Tertre and Tour de Mons have changed hands. Just last week, Lascombes announced its acquisition by Lawrence Family Wine Estates. While in St Emilion, Bellefont-Belcier, Berliquet, Fonroque, Franc-Mayne, Grand Pontet, Le Prieuré, Troplong-Mondot, and Villemaurine have changed hands. He also looks at the influx of new owners in Sauternes and the growth in the excellent dry white wines there.
Climate change
The biggest change he sees is in the importance Bordeaux now accords to the environment, with properties embracing sustainable and organic certifications and working to increase biodiversity. In his profiles he looks at how producers are combatting climate change. At least the bits they don’t like – with the suggestion that certain cooler terroirs previously associated with harsh, tannic or green wines in all but the best vintages, now coming into their own.
Stephen also outlines the evolution in winemaking from sorting to aging in amphorae and of course ‘institutional ‘ changes such as the classifications of Saint Emilion and Cru Bourgeois.
The terroir doesn’t change, although properties do buy and sell land, which doesn’t help map makers. Stephen’s book includes great maps, but for me, the best terroir maps remain Jane Anson’s book Inside Bordeaux: the châteaux, their wines and the terroir. Published in 2020, it’s an impressive tome of 670 pages, 40 colour photos, 40 full colour detailed maps, plans and diagrams, including some very cool fold-out maps. There’s a lot of variation in terroir across Bordeaux, but also within the appellations and within certain properties. Jane digs deep (sorry) into the subject helped by the maps created with experts led by Cornelis van Leeuwen of Bordeaux’s Vine and Wine Science University
Update or out of date?
How can printed wine books keep up with the changes in Bordeaux? It must be so frustrating to publish and bam, a property changes hands, a wine maker moves on. What to do? Jane has found a solution, combing print and online. Inside Bordeaux was published and distributed in partnership with BB&R who are now passing all rights to Inside Bordeaux to her. (They are doing the same with Inside Burgundy by Jasper Morris MW).
Now with full ownership and distribution, Jane can create a seamless exchange of content between her new website janeanson.com and the book and ensure new editions and translations are more easily brought to market.
It’s a gift.There is something lovely about a wine book, especially one with beautiful illustrations, you can dip in and out and it looks great on the coffee table or in the wine library. As Christmas approaches here’s a few more suggestions you might want to gift to a fellow wine enthusiast, or to yourself.
As well as Inside Bordeaux, Jane has written Bordeaux Legends and collaborated with Academie du Vin Library to contribute to On Bordeaux. More recently, she worked with historian Hélène Brun-Puginier to dive deep into the 800 year history of Chateau Haut Bailly and the Pessac Leognan, in the beautiful “Château Haut-Bailly : an exceptional terroir”, published to coincide with the opening of their spectacular cellar earlier this year.
1855
For wine history, 1855, A history of the Bordeaux Classification by Dewey Markham Jr remains my go-to guide for understanding why and how the famous 1855 classification came into being. If this seduces you, the latest publication Bordeaux 1855 is a bilingual travel guide to the Grands Crus Classé. As well as covering the basics of the classification it provides up to date information about who is open to the public for visits, tastings, meals, overnight stays and much more.
Château Malartic La Graviere and Château Smith Haut Lafitte have both published beautiful books about Bordeaux food and wine and I also recommend The Bordeaux kitchen written by Tania Teschke ,an American writer and photographer passionate about French food. She is delighted to share everything she learned from winemakers, home cooks, butchers, and chefs when living in Bordeaux. She explores the nutritional density and health benefits of an ancestral approach to food and lifestyle. That’ll be our wine and wellness again.
On the theme of updating, and for a broader wine perspective, Karen MacNeil has just released the third edition of The Wine Bible, a book that has already sold more than 800,000 copies. A leading American wine teacher, her book covers all the fundamentals, vineyards and grapes, climate and soil from around the world of wine illustrated with over 400 colour photos. The third edition offers new chapters on Great Britain, Croatia, Israel and wine history. You can order a signed and personalised copy – the perfect Christmas gift.
After this illustrious line up, I’m almost reluctant to mention my contribution to the list. In 2020 I contributed the Bordeaux chapter to The Sothebys Wine Encyclopedia. and you can buy your copy of Bordeaux Bootcamp here. If you’d like to read more, please sign up here to receive future blog posts directly to your inbox. You can learn more about Wine and Wellness, buy your copy of The Drinking Woman’s Diet here or discover the new online 7 days to a Liver friendly Lifestyle here. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I look forward to your feedback.
