Milon is a peculiar place: barely thirty houses clustered around a single, freestanding pine tree. Almost all of the inhabitants are involved in wine, even though there is no longer a single winery here. The last one recently moved into a craft beer brewery. One could diplomatically describe the village as unadorned. Of course, there is not a single indication that we are in a hotspot of the wine world here. If you were to follow the narrow, nameless alleyway that starts in the centre of the village directly eastwards, you would reach Château Lafite after a good 600 metres. If you took Rue de Lalande to the south-east, you would arrive at Château Mouton-Rothschild after about twice the distance.
Milon – a place and a terroir
Milon is nevertheless known to every serious wine connoisseur thanks to the wines named after it. In addition to numerous Cru Bourgeois that have now disappeared, such as Châteaux La Fleur Milon and Grand-Duroc-Milon, there is Château Clerc Milon, classified as a 5th growth Grand Cru, and Château Duhart-Milon, the only 4th growth Grand Cru Classé in the Pauillac appellation. Those unfamiliar with these names will prick up their ears when they hear who owns them. Clerc Milon belongs to Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, owner of Château Mouton-Rothschild, while Duhart-Milon belongs to Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR), the owners of Château Lafite. So despite the less than glamorous location, there must be a reason why its wines adorn the portfolios of Bordeaux’s most prestigious wine producers.
No one knows this better than Eric Kohler. He is the technical director at both Château Lafite and neighbouring Duhart-Milon. For him, Duhart-Milon embodies ‘the perfect balance’ between Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in Pauillac. This is because, as Kohler explains, the soil for Cabernet here consists ‘almost entirely of pebbles and is very barren, while Lafite’s soil also contains a little clay. ’At Lafite, on the other hand, Merlot is mostly grown on soils that are actually too warm for it, because they are basically Cabernet sites. In the northern vineyards of Duhart-Milon, on the other hand, there is “real” Merlot soil with a high proportion of clay and limestone.” For this reason, Duhart-Milon wines always have a higher proportion of Merlot, at around one third.
Between marshes, sea and forests
This distinctive feature of Duhart-Milon becomes even more apparent when driving through the northern part of Pauillac and then walking through the vineyards. In fact, the area north of the Chenal du Gaer stream forms a cohesive whole. It is bordered to the east by the Gironde and to the west by the sandy hills of the Landes with their dense coniferous vegetation. To the north, the marshland of the Jalle du Breuil marks the border with the Saint-Estèphe appellation. This is the sector that produces what are arguably the most dramatic wines of the Médoc. It is no coincidence that it is home to two Premier Crus – primarily due to the ‘croupes’, which are up to 30 metres high. These are gravelly hilltops that formed after the Günz Ice Age from Pyrenean gravel washed up by the Gironde. This soil formation is ideal for the late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon grape due to its ability to store heat and drain well.
Unlike in the southern part of Pauillac, where the landscape around Château Latour and the two Pichons is fairly uniform, the northern part is more heterogeneous due to geological folds and small rivers. Accordingly, the dominant gravel hills and plateaus are even more striking here. The Perot plot, for example, with its perfect south-facing orientation and steep slope, is something like the heart of Lafite. Or Les Carruades, which adjoins Duhart-Milon to the south-west and only came into Lafite’s possession in 1845, but which perhaps produces its most complete base wines. Duhart also has such an exceptional gravel hill around the Garrouil Nord parcel. Some of the estate’s oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines grow on it.
The coolness of classic Pauillac
The large soil map of the two estates, Lafite and Duhart-Milon, which dominates the front wall of Erik Kohler’s office at Château Lafite, illustrates the situation. It shows that the Duhart-Milon vineyards, located immediately west of Milon in the far north-western corner of the appellation, form a horseshoe-shaped ring of plots planted with Merlot, centred on a higher area planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, with Garrouil Nord at its core. ‘We haven’t grown Cabernet Franc for a good twenty years,’ comments Erik Kohler, ‘it’s very sensitive. And because it doesn’t ripen here, it doesn’t reach the class of Cabernet Sauvignon.’ In fact, the Duhart-Milon vineyards are cooler than those of Lafite and are harvested four to seven days later, often as the last estate in Pauillac. ‘That’s convenient for us,’ says Kohler. ‘When we’re done harvesting the Cabernet Sauvignon at Lafite, we can start with Duhart-Milon.’
In the past, the terroir at Duhart-Milon was considered ‘difficult’ compared to its neighbours, occasionally producing brittle and somewhat “green” wines. In times of global warming, this location is now an invaluable asset. As Kohler puts it, it gives Duhart-Milon a unique ‘reserve of freshness and acidity’. Where other wines in the appellation have been struggling since 2003 with increasingly frequent ‘années solaires’, sunny years with extremely hot summers and their consequences such as high alcohol levels and low acidity, Duhart retains the ‘wonderful coolness of a classic Pauillac’ even under stress.
At Lafite, according to Kohler, the situation is being addressed by continuously reducing the proportion of Merlot. Thirty years ago, it was still a good 20 per cent, but by the turn of the century, it had fallen to 15 per cent. It has now reached seven to eight percent. Due to the unique soils at Duhart in the northernmost parcels such as Garabey, Merlot, which is susceptible to heat, never reaches more than 14 percent alcohol, even in extreme years such as 2018. In addition, the geological diversity in the Milon sector is greater and the parcel size is smaller. This is a consequence of the more peasant-like cultivation methods of the past, in contrast to the ‘Grandes Parcellaires’ of the large châteaux in Pauillac. As a result, there are more possibilities for variation when blending the wine.
New approaches to viticulture
That does not mean that Duhart-Milon can afford to rest on its laurels. The shock of the heatwave in 2003 had a profound effect on the region. For DBR, it was the starting point for an ambitious programme for the future. A cross-departmental research and development division was set up for all the group’s vineyards. And because Duhart-Milon, with an area of over 104 hectares, 75 of which are planted with vines (although only about 60 are currently available due to replanting), was large enough, it not only houses the Rothschild estates’ shared barrel cellar, but also became the group’s experimental laboratory, so to speak. Today, Eric Kohler works closely with Manuela Brando, the Colombian head of the ‘R&D department’, on a wide range of issues. In addition to biological and biodynamic trial cultivation on selected plots, this includes preparing new vine plantings from a mass selection of the group’s own vines from 2024 onwards and combating the treacherous viral vine disease Esca.
Saskia de Rothschild, president of DBR since 2019 and also the group’s chief executive since early 2022, is particularly passionate about one agroecological task: creating a balance between the different ecosystems of vines, forest and marshland. This is possible here because, unlike many wineries in the region, Duhart-Milon is almost a ‘seul tenant’, a closed vineyard area. The programme is, of course, having a noticeable impact on the current parcelling. The plan is to sacrifice 4 hectares of vines to plant ‘haies vivres’, living hedges within the vineyards. In addition, one plot is already being cultivated without the use of any pesticides in order to study the effects of various diseases. An experiment of a completely different kind was launched with the planting of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Sémillon in a plot in the north-west of the Pauillac appellation. Soon, the first white wine from Duhart-Milon will be produced here.
New attention for Duhart-Milon
The Rothschild family’s increased focus on Château Duhart-Milon was also one of the reasons behind the decision taken in 2020 to concentrate Eric Kohler’s duties as Technical Director on the group’s two Pauillac estates and relieve him of his responsibilities for L’Évangile and Rieussec. Born in Arles, Provence, Kohler experienced his first harvest in Bordeaux in 1989 at the nearby Château Poujeaux after completing his viticulture and oenology studies. After working at Château Rieussec and in the Bordeaux wine trade, he was asked in 1994, at the age of 27, to assist Charles Chevallier, the then newly appointed Technical Director of Château Lafite and the other Rothschild estates in Bordeaux. Ten years later, Kohler was appointed director of Château d’Aussières in Languedoc. In 2008, he took over the management of all DBR estates outside Bordeaux – a job spanning three continents, in which the establishment of a winery in Penglai, China, proved particularly demanding. Finally, in 2016, he was given the ultimate accolade when he took over the duties of Charles Chevallier. There is hardly a more coveted job in the world of wine.
One of Kohler’s most important tasks was overseeing the construction of a new wine cellar for Duhart-Milon, one of the biggest milestones in the development of the estate, which was completed in 2020. However, the cellar is neither located in Milon nor is it shared with Château Lafite. Instead, it is located 2.5 kilometres away as the crow flies, in the centre of Pauillac. This is due to the history of Duhart-Milon. In fact, the vineyards from the village of Milon had been linked to Lafite since they were planted in the early 18th century and at that time supplied something like a second wine. After all, the village belonged to the ‘Seigneurie de Lafite’, the manorial estate of the lord of Château Lafite. At that time, this was the de Ségur family, to which Nicolas-Alexandre, Marquis de Ségur, belonged, the legendary ‘Prince des Vignes’ who, in addition to Lafite, also owned Latour, Mouton and Calon-Ségur.
A look back at history
This changed with the French Revolution, when Milon’s vineyard holdings were auctioned off by the state to various owners. The first owner of what would later become Duhart-Milon was, not coincidentally, the mayor of Pauillac, Jean-Baptiste Mathieu Mandavy, after whom the estate was initially named Mandavy or Mandavey-Milon. The estate was divided up, partly during Mandavy’s lifetime and partly after his death (leading to the creation of Château Clerc-Milon), and then passed into the ownership of Pierre Castéja, later mayor of Bordeaux, around 1830. He had previously acquired a neighbouring vineyard and an elegant residence on the banks of the Gironde in Pauillac from the widow of a wealthy ‘corsair’ (the euphemistic term used at the time for a smuggler during the Napoleonic Continental Blockade) named Duhart. In 1868, five years after her husband’s death, his widow named the estate Château Duhart-Milon for the first time.
A glorious era: in 1855, Château Duhart was officially classified as a Quatrième Cru. Under owner Eugène Castéja, then the most important official for the promotion of the Grands Vins of the Gironde, Duhart-Milon wine was presented at world exhibitions between Saint-Louis in the USA and Osaka in Japan between 1903 and 1913. But by the economic crisis of the 1930s, things had gone downhill. From 1937 onwards, the estate changed hands several times, including to renowned négociants such as Edouard Kressmann, who was of German origin, and Francis Borie, who also owned Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. But no one could stop the decline. In the 1950s, the château itself was finally sold, demolished by the then mayor of Pauillac and replaced by a new building. All that survives is its image on the Duhart-Milon label. The devastating frost of 1956 wreaked havoc on the vineyards. When Baron Éric de Rothschild finally took over the estate in 1962, only 17 hectares of vineyards were still producing.
Renaissance under the Rothschilds
Although the Rothschild family has no plans to rebuild a château for Duhart-Milon, it has done a great deal to restore the estate to its former glory. First, all but two parcels planted in 1948 were gradually replanted. In 1974, new farm buildings were constructed in Pauillac, which wine critic Robert Parker, who recommended the estate’s higher classification as a Troisième Cru, perceived as an ‘aesthetically hideous warehouse’. Today, little remains of this after the renovation. In addition, the facility is to be supplemented by an attractive visitor centre in the future, even if the schedule is lagging somewhat due to the coronavirus pandemic.
For Eric Kohler, however, the most important thing is the new oenological possibilities that are now available to him and the team led by cellar master Alexandre Canciani. In particular, the number of stainless steel fermentation tanks has been significantly increased in order to better reflect the geological diversity of Duhart-Milon. ‘Today, I can process a good 15 to 20 additional batches separately than in 2019,’ Kohler sums up with satisfaction. ‘This will make us even more precise than we already were. I am very excited to see how this will affect our final blending of the 2020 vintage.’
The wines of Duhart-Milon
In any case, the recently bottled 2019 vintage is already in excellent condition at Moulin de Duhart. Duhart-Milon’s second wine (there is also a simple Pauillac A.O.C.) has a significantly higher Merlot content of 60 per cent and comes partly from lighter, loamy-sandy soils. An intense blueberry note gives it a fruity charm, while the wood is still somewhat dominant with noticeable coffee aromas. The very good tannin quality is already striking at this level.
Eric Kohler describes the 2019 as ‘classically modern’. By this he means a vintage produced under the conditions of global warming, but which nevertheless exhibits characteristics of the traditional style, such as pronounced acidity and moderate alcohol (here: 13.5 per cent). After 2016 as the last truly classic vintage, 2017 as a very good but somewhat unbalanced year due to rain at harvest time, and 2018 as an almost exotic year of heat. And indeed, the 2019 Grand Vin fascinates with its classic Pauillac style, such as the marriage of pencil and cassis notes in the bouquet with excellently integrated wood (14 months in 50 per cent new barriques). The texture is particularly impressive. 30 per cent Merlot gives the 70 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon (a ratio that exactly reflects the proportion of the varieties in the vineyard) just enough mellowness that its masculine structure becomes noticeable as pure finesse.
A Pauillac through and through
Château Duhart-Milon, which currently produces between 140,000 and 180,000 bottles (as well as between 100,000 and 120,000 bottles of second wine), has never had it easy in the DBR portfolio. In the past, the neighbouring Premiers Crus Lafite and Mouton were considered rivals, but so were their two ‘Milons’. According to Eric Kohler, however, the two are hardly comparable. This is because the soils of Clerc Milon are much more loamy and its more open wines can hardly be described as typical of Pauillac. The more classic Duhart-Milon, on the other hand, is a Pauillac through and through and is more closed in its youth.
In addition, the wine is often misunderstood as Lafite’s second wine, even though the estate introduced Carruades de Lafite in the mid-19th century (which, of course, does not come from grapes from the famous vineyard of the same name, but from plots that were not selected for the Grand Vin cuvée) and around which a cult of its own has formed following the price explosion of recent years. Accordingly, Jean-Guillaume Prats, CEO of Domaines Barons Rothschild until the end of last year, said in a conversation with me in Paris in 2019 [FINE 1/2019] that one of the central tasks of the Rothschild Group was to give Château Duhart-Milon something of a soul. On the sixtieth anniversary of the return of Milon wines to the ‘Lords of Lafite’, it has just begun to open its eyes.
This article is an edited reprint of an article from FINE – Das Weinmagazin 3/2022.
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Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
