Château Grand Village

Les Champs Libres, Guinaudeau, 2020

Name: Les Champs Libres, Guinaudeau
Brand: Château Grand Village
Price: 490.33 GBP

96/100

Inside Bordeaux

96/100

The Wine Independent

89/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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delivery

in bond

portfolio

2020
75cl
DP
£81.72
2020
6x75cl
DP
£490.33

Broking

2020
6x75cl
DP
£327.53
2020
3x1.5L
DP
£327.53

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

“Les Champs Libres was born in 2013 from an idea that came on an impulse of Julie and Baptiste. This new cru is the fruit of our long lasting experience combined with precision work in our white parcels at Grand Village. The history of white wine at Grand Village is an ancient one, and we have always believed that great whites could be made on this terroir. In fact, the clay-limestone soil and sub-soil of some of our parcels seemed to us as perfect for the creation of a grand Sauvignon Blanc. In the past ten years, together with our team, we applied an extremely qualitative approach both in the vineyard as in the cellar, investing our energy and time in the elaboration of these white wines. These efforts bore fruit with our whites showing considerable progress in recent vintages. In 2012, the impressive complexity of some of the Sauvignon Blanc barrels pushed us to go even further. We kept apart two barrels of Sauvignon coming from the parcel À Louima, which showed exceptional aromatic complexity. Those two barrels were bottled separately. The resulting 240 bottles and 120 magnums were baptized as “À Louima 2012”. They represent the departure on a new adventure. Convinced by the path we have chosen, we decided in 2013 to blend the best barrels coming from three key Sauvignon parcels: À Louima, Les Pêchers and Les Acacias, to create Les Champs Libres 2013. And so, Les Champs Libres came to life. A new parcel, Mathilde, joined in 2014 to complete this new cru. In just a few vintages, Les Champs Libres became a grand white wine, without ever abiding to the “rules” of great white Bordeaux. Les Champs Libres reveals a floral and complex nose. On the palate, the wine is rich and mineral, showing great freshness, balance and a remarkably long finish. We dedicate Les Champs Libres to all lovers of great white wines. It is a rare bottle, elaborated with the same convictions we employ at Lafleur. Les Champs Libres 2020 : 100% Sauvignon Blanc harvested on the 25th, 26th and 27th August.” Jacques Guinaudeau, May 2021

delivery information

GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

89/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2020 Les Champs Libres was tasted from two bottles, the first so blowsy that we called for the back-up. The second is fresher on the nose, with pressed white flowers and noticeable creamy oak that should be subsumed with time. The palate is also fresh on the entry with quite a heavy layer of oak, turning reductive toward the finish. It’s a little "made" in the winery, although it is still quite attractive. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

date of review 11/2024

96/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

The 2020 Les Champs Libres, 100% Sauvignon Blanc, slowly emerges from the glass with graceful scents of lemon curd, lime leaves, and orange blossoms with suggestions of sea spray, coriander seed, and wet pebbles. The medium-bodied palate has a gorgeous, quiet intensity with a crisp backbone and loads of mineral accents, finishing long and energetic. This is captivating.

drinking window 2025 - 2040

date of review 03/2023

96/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Focus, density and depth, and you feel the scale of this bone-dry white from chalky clay soils. Expect a slim frame and strong grip, hugging on to the end of the palate with its white peach, clean citrus, upward scraping slate texture. A delicious wine that isn't generous, but rewrites the script of white Bordeaux, and shows the ambition of Baptiste Guinaudeau of Château Lafleur. 100% aged in barrels, 100% Sancerre genetics for the Sauvignon Blanc.

drinking window 2023 - 2030

date of review 02/2023

product details

Specifications

Country:

France

Region:

Bordeaux

Appellation:

Bordeaux Blanc

Producer:

Château Grand Village

style:

White Wine

Grape Variety:

Sauvignon Blanc

abv:

14%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.