Château Bélair-Monange
Château Bélair-Monange is a French winery in the Appelation Saint-Émilion (AOC) near Bordeaux . The 12.5 hectare winery is located next to the famous Château Ausone . It belongs to the Moueix family and has been managed since 2008 by Edouard Moueix, who previously headed the Château Magdelaine . In the 19th century, the Château Bélair was one of the most famous Saint-Émilion wines. The estate was badly affected by the phylloxera plague and fell far behind other 1er Grand Crus in Saint-Émilion. Château Bélair was renamed Bélair-Monange for the 2008 vintage after it was completely taken over by the Moueix family. Since then there has been a significant increase in the quality and price of the wines. In 2012, Château Magdelaine was integrated into the winery. It was classified as a Premier Grand Cru Classé B in the 1954 INAO classification (see also the article Bordeaux wine (classification) ) and has always been confirmed in this rank since then. The wine currently consists of 80% Merlot grapes and 20% Cabernet Franc (as of 2007).
history
As early as the 15th century, the land of today's Château was in the hands of Robert Knolles (different spelling Robert Knollys). Over time, the name Knolles changed to Canolles. The Canolles family kept the estate until the beginning of the French Revolution when they had to flee. As a national biennial, Auguste Chaperon probably acquired almost the entire property for 60,450 francs and the day-to-day business continued to be managed by the previous technical director, Goudicheau. Chaperon was probably just a straw man, as the Canolles family officially took control again in 1802. From Victor de Canolles the estate went to his daughter Léontine, who married Théophile de Seissan, Baron de Marignan. The couple bequeathed the estate to their only child, Lucie, who married Paul Baron de Montbel in 1881. However, the timing of the takeover was extremely unfavorable as only five years earlier the Bordeaux wine-growing region had gone through a deep crisis due to the phylloxera disaster and shortly afterwards due to the fungal diseases of real and downy mildew . The winery, which was highly valued throughout the 19th century, suffered particularly badly and was trumped qualitatively by Château Ausone .
In 1916 Edouard Dubois-Challon took over the winery from the neighboring Château Ausone. When Edouard died in 1921, his son Jean Dubois Challon inherited Château Belair. Jean married the much younger Helyette very late. When Jean died in 1974, his widow tried to limit the influence of the Vauthier family (see Château Ausone) and hired Pascal Delbeck, a technical director. Heylette bequeathed the winery to the technical director after her death in 2003. However, Delbeck had great difficulties in raising the inheritance tax to be paid and in 2006 already sold a 31 percent stake to the trading company JP Moueix . In June 2008 the trading company finally took over the remaining 69 percent.
In addition to planned investments in the wine cellar, the Moueix family renamed the winery Château Bélair-Monange. Anna-Adèle Monange was the mother of the company's founder Jean-Pierre Moueix and the grandmother of Christian Moueix.