Closerie du Pelan

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The Amoreau family, owners of the legendary Château Le Puy for over 400 years, alongside their visionary director of operations and co-owner Harold Langlais, have expanded their footprint in their corner of the Côtes de Bordeaux over the past decade.

The family’s most recent acquisition is exceptionally unique. Back in 1984, a local named Régis Moro left his career as a painter and returned to his roots, purchasing a property called Vieux Château Champs de Mars which straddles the Côtes de Francs and Côtes de Castillon appellations. An old friend of Jean-Pierre Amoreau, Régis similarly eschewed chemical treatments and modern gadgetry from the outset, obtaining organic certification with the 2008 vintage and biodynamic certification in 2013.

While Moro’s star rose gradually on the home front—he was named “Winemaker of the Year” by the French newspaper Le Point in the early 2000s—large-scale commercial success eluded him. By the late 2010s, the winery was in mild disrepair, and the vineyards, still beautifully tended, were rife with missing vines, yielding a mere 15-20 hectoliters per hectare as a result. The Amoreau family saw an opportunity to help an old friend and to produce wine from a different terroir. They purchased the property in early 2022.

While an Amoreau-produced Closerie de Pelan (main wine of the estate) will not be released for several years, the purchase package of this fixer-upper included an incredible surprise: lurking below the cellar’s main floor was a host of older vintages, stored perfectly since their inception. And we’re not talking about a few bottles of this and that; these are proper stocks. There are many hundreds of bottles of wines of real character and charm that, symptomatic of Bordeaux’s troubles, simply never found a home until today. The wines are the old haunting style of Bordeaux that made the region famous, yet which is so rare to encounter these days.

The estate encompasses 42 total hectares, most of which—besides a small parcel of Sauvignon Blanc—are planted to roughly 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 5% Petit Verdot, at altitudes of 50 to 80 meters. Soils here are variegated and diverse, with more sand and silt than at Le Puy, which is situated higher (100 meters and above) and contains a greater presence of Asterie limestone than Pelan. The Le Puy team is currently refurbishing the cellar and planting vines to fill in the rows’ many gaps. They will continue the biodynamic farming Régis began over a decade ago. Régis’ son Sébastien is on board full-time at Pelan, helping continue his father’s legacy alongside Harold and the Amoreau family. His name will appear on the estate’s front labels as well.