Château Leognan wine: The phoenix of Philippe and Chantal Miecaze

(EUReporter) - Philippe and Chantal Miecaze are the couple who gave second birth to the Château Leognan – both to the 17th century mythical mansion and the exquisite, rich red wine from its vineyards. The Miecaze came to Bordeaux to realize their dream of embodying the legend of Leognan wines – the magic universe depicted on its emblem, with two phoenix drinking from the grail of eternal youth.

Today, when the charismatic couple welcomes guests to their splendid mansion, one can scarcely imagine the large-scale restoration works that they carried out since 2006, when they acquired the property. “Although superb, the vineyards of the chateau lost their identity and were contributing to the production of the Grand Cru Grave of the other wine house nearby, and the chateau was a total ruin, with water dripping through the roof. The chapel was even in worse condition,”  Philippe Miecaze told EU Reporter. “When we started with rather boring obligatory administrative procedures we couldn’t have thought that there would be a place for magic…”

The first surprise came with a local architect, who had in his possession drawings of the chapel’s stained glass antique windows – nobody thought that such drawings existed. The second came when the tiles with the emblem of the chateau appeared out of the dust on the floor. “What else should decorate the bottle, if not the symbol of eternal life from the tiles of the château’s Leognan chapel,” asks Miecaze. But to carry such a noble emblem from the ancient chapel on an ordinary wine bottle wasn’t good enough – the Miecaze, always looking for perfection, opted instead for a specially designed bottle.

The feeling for aesthetic and design is one of the most integral elements of the Miecazes’ success – the chateau has been restored with much taste, combining old and new, as have the visitors’ rooms that overlook the old chapel. And so is the wine production, which is respectful of nature and also uses the most advanced technologies.