A Connoisseur's Dream

For much of Bordeaux’s modern history, prestige and accessibility have been uneasy bedfellows. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Médoc, the long, narrow strip of remote vineyards on the Left Bank of the Gironde estuary. This traditionally led Bordeaux’s great châteaux to keep themselves somewhat apart from the concept of wine tourism, thereby allowing them to focus on markets rather than people, and to let their reputations do the travelling while they themselves stayed put.

To understand the rationale for this, it helps to understand the mechanics of Bordeaux commerce. Within the top echelons, wine here is sold via a complex marketplace known as La Place, home to courtiers, negociants and other mysterious middlemen who distribute across the globe, often in complex layers of trading and countertrading. As a result, producers don’t have to worry about – or engage with – whoever might end up drinking their wines. And until recently, they were perfectly happy not to. 

Such an approach was understandable on Bordeaux's Left Bank. While the vineyards of St-Emilion, on the Right Bank, lie within spitting distance of the charming Medieval town of the same name, with its cute bistros and cobbled streets, the furthest parts of the Médoc are an hour from Bordeaux city centre, and accessed by the initially unremarkable D2 road. Unremarkable, that is, apart from the fact that the road is lined by some of the world’s most celebrated communes – Margaux, Saint-Julien, and at its very heart, Pauillac.

This stretch of road is now known by the more enticing moniker La Route des Châteaux, and is a testament to how the Médoc has embraced wine tourism in recent years. Twenty years ago, when I was editing Decanter, the magazine’s mailbox bore constant witness to readers’ grievances about not being able to visit their favourite Bordeaux châteaux. The sole exception was Château Lynch-Bages, owned by the Cazes family from 1939. This fifth growth based in Pauillac has long punched well above its weight. Arguably the most celebrated Bordeaux commune of them all, Pauillac is home to three of the five first growths, and features the classic ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ profile of its supremely structured and long-lived wine.

Rooted in Pauillac itself, where patriarch André Cazes served as mayor for four decades, the family remained physically and emotionally invested in their property even as more châteaux fell into the hands of large corporations and luxury goods companies. That local presence proved transformative.

It was from this base that André’s son Jean-Michel spearheaded the rise of tourism in the Médoc, originally acquiring Château Cordeillan-Bages, in 1985, and turning it into a food, wine and lifestyle haven. Even more remarkable was his transformation, in the early 2000s, of the dilapidated hamlet of Bages – then a collection of drab stone winery outbuildings – into a thriving village at the heart of Pauillac, complete with deli, boutiques and restaurant. Today, a stream of international visitors immerses themselves in Pauillac life, hiring a bike to explore the local vineyards, mixing with winemakers in the buzzing Cazes-owned Café Lavinal, or even making their own cuvée at VINIV, also owned and operated by the Cazes family.

VINIV is a contract winemaking operation for consumers, allowing wine lovers to craft their own wine from Bordeaux vines. The operation offers access to various vineyard parcels across the region, with clients able to blend freely (rather than having to stick to individual appellations, as required of classed growths) according to their tastes. For some professional guidance, they have at their disposal the technical directors of Lynch-Bages and sister estates Château Haut-Batailley and Ormes de Pez, who advise on the perfect blend of grape varieties and communes, and the optimum oak-ageing. Amateur vignerons can then design their own labels and branding, with the wine aged in barrel on site at Lynch-Bages until it is ready for bottling and dispatch.

By the time Jean-Michel Cazes passed on his legacy in 2023, at the age of 88, he had completed one final landmark – the freshly renovated winery and cellar at Lynch-Bages, unveiled in 2017. The steel-and-glass design was sympathetically but strikingly incorporated into the existing edifice by the architect Chien Chung Pei, best known for working with his father on the design of the Louvre pyramid in Paris. It was fitting, then, that by this stage, Jean-Michel was working hand-in-glove with his own son Jean-Charles, who is today an equally visible figurehead across the family’s various activities. 

Jean-Michel’s greatest gift, however, surely lies beyond his own doorstep, in the way that other properties in the Médoc have since followed in his footsteps. The wine tourism scene here is unrecognisable from 20 years ago, with most estates now offering a host of visits, tours and tastings. In nearly all cases, these need to be booked in advance, and the first growths remain a more challenging proposition to anyone without an ‘in’ (or access to the supremely well-connected concierge at COMO Cordeillan-Bages). But in general, the Médoc is a far more open place than it was. 

In short, now is a good time to be a wine-loving visitor to Bordeaux–not least since a few challenging vintages and over-ambitious pricing has led to a surplus of wine and acknowledgement from winery owners that they can no longer shut themselves away in their turreted châteaux. And for that, wine lovers the world over can raise a glass to the memory of Jean-Michel Cazes.

Book your stay at COMO Cordeillan-Bages to live the full Bordeaux wine experience by contacting our concierge team now.