"My grandfather created Château Cailleteau Bergeron in 1933," says Pierre-Charles Dartier, a tall, affable fellow with the rugged, camera-ready good looks of a football star, standing in front of his family's winery with his sister and partner, Marie Dartier. It is a chill, but gorgeously sunny Sunday morning, and the Dartiers have agreed to meet me on this most sacred of French days to show me their delicious wines and modern winemaking facilities.

First, a word about the region. You probably already know about Bordeaux, if only that the wines in this region are world famous and are attracting sky-rocket prices around the world. Château Cailleteau Bergeron is located in the Premières Côtes de Blaye appellation in Bordeaux. The main town of Blaye lies on the right bank of the Gironde River, fifty kilometers downstream from Bordeaux. The region dates from the year 25 B.C., when the Romans established a "castrum" or military defensive position to protect Bordeaux.

Blaye has always produced very good wine from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec (sometimes called Cot). Yet in the past, these quality wines have been usurped by the popularity of their more glitzy classified growth cousins. Now things are changing for two key reasons. First, the rising prices of Cru Classe wines are sending quality wine lovers searching for more affordable options within Bordeaux. Also, a new wave of quality control has been sweeping the appellation, so wines from Blaye are now historically better than ever.

The Dartiers show me around their 40 hectares of vines in the
Vineyard (35 hectares of red wine varieties and 5 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc). Merlot, which accounts for 80% of their red wine varieties, is planted on diverse terroirs (gentle clay-limestone slopes, a sandy plateau, and light clay soil). Cabernet Sauvignon, planted on clay, constitutes 15% of their red wine varieties and provides fruit and structure to the wines. Malbec is grown exclusively on clay-limestone soil and accounts for the remaining 5% of red wine varieties, providing wines rich in flavour and color. The sandy limestone soil is best for their Sauvignon Blanc.

To extract color and flavor, the varieties of red grapes macerate separately for about two weeks before fermentation in French oak. The wines are then aged separately in different types of barrels (a mix of different types of oak from a variety of coopers) for thirteen months before blending and bottling. Neat as a pin, the winery could represent a poster for the new hygienic standards of the region. Then again, Mr. Dartier tells me that even back in 1978 the winery was the first in the area to embrace the modern trend by machine harvesting.

Mr. Dartier has big plans for his winery, and takes obvious pride in showing the facility and its wines to visitors. Already, he is training his five and three year old children, Thomas and Clara, in the art of tasting. One would expect to see them running the winery in twenty years hence.

Visit the Bordeaux region and Château Cailleteau Bergeron; 33390 Mazion, France; Tél : 33 (0)5 57 42 11 10 - Fax : 33 (0)5 57 42 37 72