Médoc Prestige

In creating the "Château Haut Condissas" vintage in 1995, Jean Guyon was following the same approach as for the garage wines of the Right Bank, i.e. to deploy a maximum of efforts on a small vineyard to reach the quality of the best Grands Crus.On 1 hectare of vines (since enlarged to 5 ha) planted at 8,500 vines/ha on clay gravel and cultivated "like a garden", attention is paid to each vine and each bunch. The grape varieties are Merlot (65%), Cabernet Sauvignon (25%) and Petit Verdot (10%).

As at Rollan de By, but in a more refined way, the cultivation is traditional and demanding: ploughing of the soils, leaf removal and green harvesting, reasoned control of treatments and amendments. The grapes are harvested by hand in small crates with rigorous sorting, bunch by bunch, with ripening going as far as the passerillage. The yields are consequently reduced (around 30/hl/ha). The vinification is carried out in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats that are wider than they are tall, with pre-fermentation maceration and a 3-week vatting period after alcoholic fermentation. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrels (50% new). The wine is aged for approximately 18 months on its lees with stirring in 100% new French oak barrels.

The wine is bottled after fining with egg white. Concentrated, powerful, deep and round at the same time, the wine, of modern style, benefits from the rigorous selections and the full maturity of the grapes. It has been quickly recognised as being qualitatively close to the best, finishing in the top positions in several comparative blind tastings.