France · Médoc

Château Mayne Lalande - Bernard Lartigue

Château Mayne Lalande is a Listrac-Médoc estate founded by Bernard Lartigue, who began developing it in 1975 and made its first vintage in 1982. Its 18 hectares of vines are planted equally to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

The producer

Château Mayne Lalande is a Bordeaux estate in the Listrac-Médoc appellation, built by Bernard Lartigue from 1975 and producing its first vintage in 1982. Its 18 hectares of vines sit within a 22 hectare property and include equal plantings of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, supported by Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Alice-Jeanne now leads the estate. Harvest dates are chosen by tasting grapes from each parcel, while the wines receive 12 to 18 months in oak barrels. Biodynamic conversion began in 2018. Château Mayne Lalande 2015 shows the house in the glass with ruby colour, red berries, cherry and plum beneath new oak, followed by fresh acidity, tannic bite and a long, tight finish.

Known for

Parcel-by-parcel grape tasting to set harvest dates, followed by 12 to 18 months of oak ageing. Biodynamic conversion began in 2018.

Notable facts

The story

Bernard Lartigue opened guest rooms to healthcare workers

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bernard Lartigue opened Château Mayne Lalande's guest accommodations to healthcare workers. The rooms, already part of the property's hospitality offer, became available to people working in healthcare during the crisis. The decision used an existing part of the Listrac-Médoc estate, alongside the vineyards and cellar, as a place for workers who needed accommodation. The guest rooms remained connected to the house itself, but their purpose during that period was practical lodging for healthcare staff. At Château Mayne Lalande, hospitality space was opened to healthcare workers during the pandemic.

From the atlas

Château Mayne Lalande - Bernard Lartigue

At A Glance

Château Mayne Lalande is a Bordeaux estate in the Listrac-Médoc appellation, with 18 hectares of vines inside a 22 hectare property. Bernard Lartigue began developing it in 1975, produced the first vintage in 1982, and built the vineyard around equal plantings of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, supported by Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Alice-Jeanne now leads the estate. Château Mayne Lalande 2015 is the supplied bottle with the clearest tasting profile: ruby colour, red fruit, fresh acidity and a long, tight finish.

The Producer

Bernard Lartigue did not inherit a finished château. He acquired and rebuilt Château Mayne Lalande from 1975, then released its first vintage in 1982. Successive land purchases brought the vineyard to 22 hectares, while his family’s presence in Listrac and Moulis stretched back more than six generations. The estate therefore carries both a local family history and the mark of one person’s expansion.

Lartigue was self-taught and developed the property through his own creativity. His working method was direct: he tasted grapes from each parcel to decide when to harvest. Alice-Jeanne succeeds him today, carrying forward an estate whose wines are shaped by parcel decisions, a mixed Médoc planting and barrel ageing.

Place

Listrac-Médoc is both the home appellation and the name that frames the bottle. The estate sits in Bordeaux’s Médoc, where the label places the wine inside a defined appellation instead of presenting it as an unspecified regional red. Its 18 hectares under vine also give the name a physical scale, with enough planting to include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in the estate’s vineyard plan.

The equal 45 percent shares of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon make the range less dependent on a single variety. Merlot supplies one half of the vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon the other, while the two five percent plantings add smaller supporting parcels to the cellar’s choices.

Soil And Site

Château Mayne Lalande farms 18 hectares within a 22 hectare estate, and harvest decisions begin at parcel level. Bernard Lartigue tasted grapes from individual plots to find the picking date, linking the physical variation between parcels to ripeness in the finished wine. The supplied record names no soil profile or vineyard parcel, so the clearest site detail comes from this vineyard-by-vineyard approach and from the range of grapes planted across the estate.

Story

Lartigue’s estate arc runs from acquisition to succession. He began transforming Château Mayne Lalande in 1975, made the first vintage in 1982 and expanded the vineyard through successive land purchases. The work turned a property into an 18 hectare wine estate, with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon occupying equal shares of the vines.

From 2000 to 2005, Lartigue served as president of the Listrac-Médoc appellation. He died on October 27, 2020, aged 71, and Alice-Jeanne succeeded him in leading the estate. The vineyard also began conversion to biodynamic viticulture in 2018, adding a new farming direction to the property’s longer history.

Vineyards And Cellar

The vineyard is planted with 45 percent Merlot, 45 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 percent Cabernet Franc and 5 percent Petit Verdot. That mix places the two main Bordeaux varieties on equal footing, while the smaller plantings remain part of the estate’s available palette. Lartigue’s habit of tasting grapes from each parcel brought the harvest decision close to the fruit itself, with ripeness judged in the vineyard before the cellar received it.

The wines receive 12 to 18 months in oak barrels. In the documented 2015, new oak sits alongside red berries, cherry, plum and herbal notes, while fresh acidity and tannic bite keep the palate from feeling soft. Biodynamic conversion began in 2018, marking a change in vineyard management without changing the estate’s established Bordeaux grape framework.

Wines

The range begins with the estate’s red Bordeaux planting, led in equal measure by Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and supported by Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Those percentages describe the vineyard, not the exact blend of the 2015 vintage. The available material does not establish a complete list of cuvées or a secondary-wine hierarchy, so the bottle name remains the reliable guide: Château Mayne Lalande is the documented estate wine.

Château Mayne Lalande 2015 is a youthful red with medium to deep ruby colour. Its nose combines new oak with discreet fruit, then opens into red berries, cherry, plum and herbal notes. On the palate it is medium weight, with red currant, fresh acidity and a tannic bite. The long, tight finish places the vintage in a firm, compact register while the fruit remains identifiable.

In The Glass

The 2015 rises from the glass in medium to deep ruby, with a youthful appearance before the aroma begins to unfold. New oak arrives first, followed by discreet fruit and the sharper detail of red berries, cherry and plum. Herbal notes sit behind the fruit, keeping the nose from becoming purely sweet or ripe.

In the mouth, the wine moves at medium weight. Fresh acidity carries red currant across the palate, while tannin adds a dry bite at the edges. The oak ageing used at the estate helps account for the wood note, but the fruit remains present beneath it. The finish lengthens without broadening, leaving a tight line of acidity and tannin after the last red-fruit note fades.

A Bottle To Understand It

Château Mayne Lalande 2015 is the first bottle to open because its vineyard context and taste profile are both documented. It is a Listrac-Médoc red from an estate planted equally to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in smaller proportions. In the glass, it brings ruby colour, cherry, plum, red currant, fresh acidity, tannic bite and a long, tight finish, with new oak folded through the nose.

The wine presents the estate at a useful moment: young enough for the fruit and oak to remain visible, firm enough for the parcel-led harvest approach to register through acidity and tannin. It offers a direct first encounter with the name on the label and the way the cellar handles it.

Anecdote

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bernard Lartigue opened the estate’s guest accommodations to healthcare workers. Rooms normally used for hospitality became places to stay for people working through the crisis. The decision turned an existing part of Château Mayne Lalande into practical accommodation at a period when healthcare staff needed support. The estate offered space already present on the property, and the rooms welcomed workers during the pandemic. It was a gesture of solidarity carried out through the house itself, with wine production and hospitality sharing the same address.

Final Word

Château Mayne Lalande joins a long Listrac-Médoc family presence to Bernard Lartigue’s personally built estate, parcel tasting at harvest and a vineyard now moving through biodynamic conversion. Château Mayne Lalande 2015 puts those choices into a firm, fresh red with red fruit, oak, tannin and a long finish.

Sources

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