Stéphane Derenoncourt
Encyclopedia
Stéphane Derenoncourt is a French
vigneron working as a consultant for numerous estates
in Bordeaux
and other wine producers world wide, with his wife Christine Derenoncourt runs Vignerons Consultants and owns Domaine de l'A in the Côtes de Castillon and Derenoncourt California in Napa Valley
. He is entirely self-taught.
A Normandy
steel mill worker's son, Derenoncourt was born in Dunkirk in 1963. The start of his career in viticulture began when he arrived as a hitch-hiker in Fronsac
in 1982, and worked several harvests before he found employment at Château Fronsac in 1985. After two years working at various vineyards, he began working in the cellar at Château La Fleur Cailleau. In 1990, Derenoncourt was offered a position at the Corre-Macquin family’s cellar at the Château Pavie-Macquin
vineyard, and in 1996 was hired as a winemaker by Stephan von Neipperg to his estates, including Château Canon-la-Gaffelière
and the "super cuvée"
La Mondotte.
Derenoncourt began as a consultant in 1997, and in 1999 he and his wife started their own consultancy company, Vignerons Consultants. Derenoncourt and his team now works with a populous portfolio of estates in Bordeaux and elsewhere, including Domaine de Chevalier
, Clos Fourtet
, Clos de l'Oratoire
and chateaux Pavie-Macquin, Canon-la-Gaffelière, La Gaffelière
, Petit Village, Smith Haut Lafitte
, Brown
, Les Carmes Haut-Brion
, Rol Valentin
, Prieuré-Lichine
and Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse
. In June 2008, Derenoncourt and Vignerons Consultants was hired by Francis Ford Coppola
to work on the Napa Valley property Rubicon Estate Winery
. Other Derenoncourt projects abroad include engagements in Italy, Austria, Spain, Turkey, China, India, in Syria with Domaine de Bargylus, and in Beqaa Valley
, Lebanon with Château Marsyas.
Derenoncourt and his wife owns the estate Domaine de l'A, in the Bordeaux sub-region Côtes de Castillon, and with the wine merchant François Thienpont, the negociant company Terra Burdigala, with an aim to provide a distribution outlet for quality estates in less glamorous and publicly profiled areas and regions. Derenoncourt has also been a member of the Montesquieu Wines buying team since 2006, selecting wines Montesquieu offers its clients.
In late 2009, Derenoncourt released his first California wine
, Derenoncourt California, a project started in 2006. The 2006 vintage of Derenoncourt California features five single-vineyard wines: a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
from Caldwell Vineyard, a Napa Valley Cabernet Franc
from Caldwell Vineyard, a Napa Valley Merlot
from Stagecoach Vineyard, a Napa Valley Syrah from Carneros
, and a Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Hills Vineyard. The wines are produced at Arkenstone Vineyards on Howell Mountain. His inaugural U.S. wines received positive reviews from James Laube
of the Wine Spectator
, Joshua Greene of Wine & Spirits
, and L. Pierce Carson of the Napa Valley Register
, among others.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
vigneron working as a consultant for numerous estates
Winery
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, bottling lines, laboratories, and large expanses of...
in Bordeaux
Bordeaux wine
A Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world...
and other wine producers world wide, with his wife Christine Derenoncourt runs Vignerons Consultants and owns Domaine de l'A in the Côtes de Castillon and Derenoncourt California in Napa Valley
Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, United States. Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine regions in the United States...
. He is entirely self-taught.
A Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
steel mill worker's son, Derenoncourt was born in Dunkirk in 1963. The start of his career in viticulture began when he arrived as a hitch-hiker in Fronsac
Fronsac
Fronsac is the name or part of the name of the following communes in France:* Fronsac, Gironde, in the Gironde department* Fronsac, Haute-Garonne, in the Haute-Garonne department* La Lande-de-Fronsac, in the Gironde department...
in 1982, and worked several harvests before he found employment at Château Fronsac in 1985. After two years working at various vineyards, he began working in the cellar at Château La Fleur Cailleau. In 1990, Derenoncourt was offered a position at the Corre-Macquin family’s cellar at the Château Pavie-Macquin
Château Pavie-Macquin
Château Pavie-Macquin is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Premier grand cru classé B in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine. The winery is one of three Pavie estates, along with Château Pavie and Château Pavie-Decesse, located in the Right Bank of France’s Bordeaux...
vineyard, and in 1996 was hired as a winemaker by Stephan von Neipperg to his estates, including Château Canon-la-Gaffelière
Château Canon-la-Gaffelière
Château Canon-la-Gaffelière is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Grand cru classé in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
and the "super cuvée"
Garagistes
The garagistes refers to a group of innovative winemakers in the Bordeaux region, producing "Vins de garage", "Garage wine". A group emerged in the mid 1990s in reaction to the traditional style of red Bordeaux wine, which is highly tannic and requires long ageing in the bottle to become drinkable...
La Mondotte.
Derenoncourt began as a consultant in 1997, and in 1999 he and his wife started their own consultancy company, Vignerons Consultants. Derenoncourt and his team now works with a populous portfolio of estates in Bordeaux and elsewhere, including Domaine de Chevalier
Domaine de Chevalier
Domaine de Chevalier is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, ranked among the Premiers Crus for red and white wine in the Classification of Graves wine of 1953 and 1959. The winery and vineyards are located south of the city of Bordeaux, in the commune of Léognan...
, Clos Fourtet
Clos Fourtet
Clos Fourtet, previously Château Clos Fourtet and archaichally Camfourtet, is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Premier grand cru classé B in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
, Clos de l'Oratoire
Clos de l'Oratoire
Clos de l'Oratoire is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Grand cru classé in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
and chateaux Pavie-Macquin, Canon-la-Gaffelière, La Gaffelière
Château La Gaffelière
Château La Gaffelière, previously Château Gaffelière-Naudes, is a Bordeaux wine from the Saint-Émilion appellation, ranked among the Premiers grands crus classés B in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
, Petit Village, Smith Haut Lafitte
Château Smith Haut Lafitte
Château Smith Haut Lafitte is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, ranked among the Premiers Crus for red wine in the Classification of Graves wine of 1953 and 1959...
, Brown
Château Brown
Château Brown is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, unranked in the Classification of Graves wine. The winery and vineyards are located south of the city of Bordeaux, just north of Château Olivier with property within the communes of Gradignan, Villenave-d'Ornon and Léognan.In...
, Les Carmes Haut-Brion
Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion
Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a Bordeaux wine estate located in the AOC Pessac-Léognan within the region of Graves.In addition to producing a red grand vin named Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, the estate produces the red second wine Le Clos des Carmes....
, Rol Valentin
Château Rol Valentin
Château Rol Valentin is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion Grand Cru, an area next to Saint-Émilion proper. Do not confuse such wines with those that are ranked Grand cru in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
, Prieuré-Lichine
Chateau Prieure-Lichine
Château Prieuré-Lichine, previously Château Le Prieuré and Château Prieuré-Cantenac, is a winery in the Margaux appellation of the Bordeaux region of France, in the commune of Cantenac...
and Beauséjour Duffau-Lagarrosse
Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse)
Château Beauséjour, formerly fully titled Château Beauséjour-Duffau-Lagarrosse, is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Saint-Émilion, ranked Premier grand cru classé B in the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine...
. In June 2008, Derenoncourt and Vignerons Consultants was hired by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
to work on the Napa Valley property Rubicon Estate Winery
Rubicon Estate Winery
The Rubicon Estate Winery is located in Rutherford, California, USA. The winery sits on a portion of the historic Napa Valley property first acquired in 1879 by a Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum, founder of the Inglenook Winery.-History:In 1975, Francis Ford Coppola and his wife Eleanor,...
. Other Derenoncourt projects abroad include engagements in Italy, Austria, Spain, Turkey, China, India, in Syria with Domaine de Bargylus, and in Beqaa Valley
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. For the Romans, the Beqaa Valley was a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region...
, Lebanon with Château Marsyas.
Derenoncourt and his wife owns the estate Domaine de l'A, in the Bordeaux sub-region Côtes de Castillon, and with the wine merchant François Thienpont, the negociant company Terra Burdigala, with an aim to provide a distribution outlet for quality estates in less glamorous and publicly profiled areas and regions. Derenoncourt has also been a member of the Montesquieu Wines buying team since 2006, selecting wines Montesquieu offers its clients.
In late 2009, Derenoncourt released his first California wine
California wine
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...
, Derenoncourt California, a project started in 2006. The 2006 vintage of Derenoncourt California features five single-vineyard wines: a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...
from Caldwell Vineyard, a Napa Valley Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone - as in the Loire's Chinon...
from Caldwell Vineyard, a Napa Valley Merlot
Merlot
Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...
from Stagecoach Vineyard, a Napa Valley Syrah from Carneros
Los Carneros AVA
Los Carneros AVA is an American Viticultural Area which includes parts of both Sonoma and Napa counties in California, U.S.A.. It is located north of San Pablo Bay. The proximity to the cool fog and breezes from the bay makes the climate in Los Carneros cooler and more moderate than the wine...
, and a Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Hills Vineyard. The wines are produced at Arkenstone Vineyards on Howell Mountain. His inaugural U.S. wines received positive reviews from James Laube
James Laube
James Laube is an American wine critic, writing for Wine Spectator since 1980, a full-time staff writer since 1983, with expertise on California wine...
of the Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator is a lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces...
, Joshua Greene of Wine & Spirits
Wine & Spirits
Wine & Spirits is an American wine magazine. With offices in New York and San Francisco, the magazine publishes eight issues annually.In addition to publisher and editor-in-chief Joshua Greene, among the contributors are Tara Q. Thomas, Patrick Comiskey, Patricio Tapia, Peter Liem, with additional...
, and L. Pierce Carson of the Napa Valley Register
Napa Valley Register
The Napa Valley Register is a daily newspaper located in Napa, California. The paper began publication on August 10, 1853. The current editor is Michael Donnelly....
, among others.