Château Le Bon Pasteur

The fate of Le Bon Pasteur is then closely connected to Michel Rolland who represents the spirit of the château for 40 years. Michel Rolland was born in 1947 on the edge of the Pomerol appellation. Steeped in nature, he spent his childhood and teenage years on the family property, Le Bon Pasteur in Pomerol-Maillet. Perhaps this explains his love for the land in general and in particular for the vine.

After technical studies at schools of agriculture and viticulture, he was accepted into the Faculty of Oenology in Bordeaux. It’s then – in 1968 – that he met Dany, who was to become his wife. From that point forward, they stayed by one another’s side and pursued their career together. In 1973, the couple associate with the owners of a lab in Libourne and that is where it all began.

When his father Serge Rolland died in 1979, he took over the family property he developed the recipes and techniques that have made it successful: search for the optimal maturity of the grapes, green harvesting, plot selections, sorting the grapes before and after destemming, whole grape vinification, pigeage extraction, use small tanks from 15-70 hectoliters, equipped with a thermal control system since 1987. An innovation in the appellation.

Terroir 
What makes Château Le Bon Pasteur, with a total surface area of 6.7 hectares, so unusual is that it is located on the border between two world-famous regions: Pomerol and Saint-Emilion. As opposed to the great châteaux of the Médoc, the vineyard is not in a single block, but spread out over 21 plots. This patchwork of terroirs accounts for the wine’s considerable complexity, deep colour and delicate bouquet, as well as a softness typical of Pomerol and a generous, powerful side reminiscent of Saint-Emilion.

Wines
Deep color and delicate bouquet, as well as a softness typical of Pomerol and a generous, powerful side reminiscent of Saint-Emilion are the hallmarks of the wines of Château Le Bon Pasteur.

This extraordinary complexity results from the mosaic of identities of its 21 cadastered plots in the Pomerol appellation, to the French border of St. Emilion.