Château Graves de Pez, Saint-Estephe, 2020

Maxime St Martin was just 21 when he bought this 3ha estate from his uncle (2008), making him the youngest vigneron in the appellation by quite some years. Originally from Cognac his grandparents moved to the Médoc in 1960 to manage the Tesseron family’s Château Lafon-Rochet, and his parents currently own the excellent cru artisan property Château Vieux Gabarey in Lamarque. Whilst working at Lafon-Rochet his grandparents purchased the tiny parcels that comprise Graves de Pez, despite a strong desire to make their own wine they were too busy with their day job and resorted to selling the grapes to the co-op. Maxime finally made the family’s dream a reality when in 2009 he produced his first vintage at the property. Renowned Médoc consultant Eric Boissenot now follows him, and Graves de Pez attained the Cru Artisan classification when it was revised in 2018. Maxime recently became the youngest (29yo) President of the 36 strong Crus Artisans syndicate.