No Relation: Clos Saint-Martin 1964-2017
BY NEAL MARTIN |
If small is beautiful, then Clos Saint-Martin is the fairest of them all. Twenty years after first visiting this ideally located estate on the Saint-Émilion, I return to visit proprietor Sophie Fourcade and re-taste recent vintages.
Memories of my primeur trip back in 2000 are vague; it was a bloomin’ long time ago. But I do possess evidence of lunch at the minuscule but well-regarded Saint-Émilion property Clos Saint-Martin, in the form of a photograph, an old-fashioned one that you can hold that was developed at Boots, date digitized in the bottom left-hand corner. Presumably the reason for this visit was to meet proprietor Sophie Fourcade, who a few months earlier had accepted the running of the estate. I was unfamiliar with the name, but a vivacious 1964 Clos Saint-Martin made an impression, proving that despite its diminutive size, the estate could produce wines of impressive longevity. That’s no surprise given its prime location on the limestone plateau wedged between Beau-Séjour Bécot and Château Canon. Thereafter I regularly procured bottles, not only because of their quality, but because of the novelty of sharing a surname. Despite tasting every vintage over the last two decades and intermittently older ones, I had never returned to Clos Saint-Martin...at least not until a blustery, rain-sodden morning in February.
Fortunately, the clouds briefly cleared so that I could take this photo of Sophie Fourcade, with the vineyard of Clos Saint-Martin behind her toward Beau-Séjour Bécot.
History
As implied by its name, Clos Saint-Martin was originally part of the namesake Presbyterian Church. In 1850, the clergy amalgamated the diaspora of small churches into one central église in Saint-Émilion, and consequently Saint-Martin was deprived of its flock and its raison d’être. “My great-great-grandfather, Monsieur Malen, bought the vineyard and the house,” Sophie Fourcade told me. Given the small production, it might have been tempting to sell the fruit to the local cooperative or another estate, but Fourcade assured me that they have always bottled it themselves. Perusing wine literature, it is very difficult to glean much information from older editions of the Féret guide – nary a mention, in fact. Bernard Ginestet included Clos Saint-Martin in his Saint-Émilion book in a brief entry that says the vineyard blend included 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, indicating a shift toward Merlot in recent years.
“My mother, Madame Rieffers, came from Luxembourg and was in charge of the family’s three estates: Les Grandes Murailles, Côte de Baleau and Clos Saint-Martin. My first vintage was in 1998, the same year that [winemaker] Benoît Turbet-Delof started. I had worked as a lawyer for a bank and then took time off to raise my three children. When I decided to return to work, my mother asked me to come to Clos Saint-Martin.”
