Over half of the surface area of Château Jean Faure is planted with Cabernet Franc. This is original for a Saint-Emilion wine, but similar to mythical Cheval Blanc and Figeac. Comprising Cabernet Franc (65%), Merlot (30%) and Malbec (5%), the estate’s vineyard produces wines, expressing elegance and freshness.

The wines of Château Jean Faure are elaborated from perfectly ripened grapes. Suave tannins and adapted maturing techniques deliver a natural vision of their potential, displaying pulpy, straight-forward and eloquent fruit. Obtaining strength is never a prerequisite; achieving silky tannins is the ultimate quest.

CHÂTEAU JEAN FAURE’s historic 18-hectare vineyard is rooted in a magnificent terroir of deep clay from 40cm. Agricultural Engineer and Doctor in Enology, Xavier Choné, has undertaken a major study of the soil of Château Jean Faure, including 30 ground surveys. He summed up the geology and the relief of the vineyard at Château Jean Faure : “80% of the surface of Château Jean Faure’s vineyard is represented by a very clayey subsoil, appearing 30 to 100 cm underground. The roots can grow to a depth of 150 to 200 cm.”

The compact structure of the clayey subsoils offers the advantage of limiting the vine’s vigor. Water rises by capillarity via the clay, thereby allowing the vineyard to sustain itself up until the harvest. When it comes to 40-year old vines like those at Château Jean Faure, it is impossible to implement water shortage constraints.

In 2020 Philippe Gard (Dionys) produced detailed maps of Jean Faure’s terroir on an intra-parcel scale. He identified 3 main deposits:

• clay soil, 60 cm below the surface (most of the estate’s plots)
• clay limestone soil, 90 cm below the surface
• eroded anticline millstone grit

He concluded that: “80% of Jean Faure’s terroirs are great terroirs with clay-laden subsoils, highly adapted to Cabernet Franc.”