Chateau Kirwan on the rise
CHATEAU KIRWAN has always been a great Medoc wine. There was never a doubt that when then Emperor Napoleon III wanted a classification system for the growing wine trade, that Chateau Kirwan would easily make the 61 wines given a classified growth in the time-tested and sacred Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. I recently had the pleasure of spending time with Yann Schyler, the eighth-generation head of the almost 300-year-old negociant Schroder and Schyler (established 1739) that owns Chateau Kirwan. Mr. Schyler was in Manila for a couple of wine events this October.
NEGOCIANTS
Schroder and Schyler has a unique position in the Grand Cru Bordeaux trade as it is one of the oldest negociants (“negociant” is a French term for wine merchant) in the business; in 1925, the company bought Chateau Kirwan, a third growth from the Margaux commune. Given his insider status, Mr. Schyler was in a perfect position to explain why negociants have historically played important roles in the system of Bordeaux wine trading, which has survived the test of time. As he articulated, negociants were the necessary bridge between grape producers/vineyard owners and buyers.
In the 17th century, the chateau or vineyard owners’ role was simply to make wines and put the wines in barrels. The negociants would then come in and bottle the wines in their facilities, and also do the selling and distribution. In many cases, a negociant could even buy the entire harvest of a renowned chateau and put his name on the label. If a chateau’s harvest of a vintage was too much for one negociant to handle, other negociants would be asked to come in and join in the equal division of the barrels of wines.
“In fact, if you come to my office in Bordeaux, I can show you bottles of late 19th century vintage Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Cos d’Estournet, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Beychevelle, name it – all under Schroder and Schyler labels,” said Mr. Schyler.
During the early part of the 20th century, Schroder and Schyler was buying whole crops from Chateau Kirwan and three or four other chateaux almost exclusively. Mr. Schyler’s great grandfather (the fifth-generation Schyler) decided to buy Chateau Kirwan from the municipality of Bordeaux in 1925, thus completing the crossover of Schroder and Schyler from negociant to chateau owner.
In those times, negociants were very powerful since they actually did the bottling of all the chateaux that were classified growths. It was also around the mid-1920s too that Baron Philippe de Rothschild changed that system and became the first chateau to bottle its own wines. Soon enough, all the big-name chateaux followed, curtailing the powers of the negociants and putting the quality and marketing of the brands back into the rightful hands of the vineyard owners.
MAJOR RENOVATION
Mr. Schyler admitted that when his great-grandfather bought Chateau Kirwan, the chateau wasn’t in good shape. This was the situation too with most chateaux at that time. The vineyards, the wines, and the “terroir” were never in question, but the chateaux were nowhere near like what they are at present.
It was roughly around the 1960s that most of the chateaux, especially the classified growths, improved their facilities and wineries. As far as Mr. Schyler can remember, he witnessed a few improvements in Chateau Kirwan between the 1970s and 1990s. In the late 1970s, when he was still very young, a wooden vat cellar was installed in the chateau. Then, in 1992, Mr. Schyler’s father made another vat cellar, this time in stainless steel. It was not until few years back, in 2015, that Chateau Kirwan underwent a real face-lift that took two years to complete.
Earlier this year, Chateau Kirwan unveiled its new building with improved functional features. The two buildings that were once separated by a narrow road inside the chateau were transformed into one building. The chateau has a new production facility, a new fermentation room with multiple concrete vats, and a new cellar for aging that connects the fermenting room with the existing cellars.
The new facilities also allow for a more tourist-friendly experience with modern touchscreen displays complete with several language options and a walkway around the winery that allows visitors to watch the winery’s operations without disturbing the workers.
Mr. Schyler admitted that the huge investment undertaken in this major renovation was to keep up with the other chateaux in terms of modernity and functionality. It also took into account Chateau Kirwan’s involvement in wine tourism. “Chateau Kirwan hosts some 12,000 visitors per year, and Chateau Kirwan has been part of the Bordeaux wine tourism for almost 20 years already,” said Mr. Schyler. The chateau also hosts around 5,000 meals per year, either lunch or dinner in its widened dining areas and kitchen space.
Mr. Schyler travels a few months annually to Asia, with more than half of these trips going to mainland China, where Chateau Kirwan has established quite a loyal following. Its second label, Charmes de Kirwan is also one of the best-selling second-label wines among the classified growth chateaux. Mr. Schyler was given a Chinese name Qilin (Chinese pinyin: qílín) which sounded phonetically close to Schyler. Qilin also happens to be a Chinese mythological creature with a dragon-like head, a horse-like body, and ox-like hooves. Covered in scales, it protects the good and attacks the wicked and the evil. Qilin symbolizes good luck, protection and prosperity. The Chinese name has indeed been lucky for Schroder and Schyler, as just a few years ago, the company launched a range of entry-level Bordeaux under the Schyler brand, complete with the Qilin creature in the label and the signature of Mr. Schyler himself. The brand and the Bordeaux wine have proven to be instant winners too, as thousands of cases of these wines were already successfully sold in China.
During Mr. Schyler’s recent trip to Manila, I brought him to Chinatown, where both Chateau Kirwan and Charmes de Kirwan were selling quite well. This Schyler label may possibly come to Manila soon, targeted at local Filipino-Chinese consumers. With a fully renovated winery, great harvests and vintages in 2014 to 2016, and a lucky mythological creature on its side, Chateau Kirwan is definitely on the rise.
It is a good time to invest in Chateau Kirwan and Charmes de Kirwan wines now before the high demand catches up with its supply equilibrium and forces prices up. Indeed a smart buy for a classified Margaux wine that is still within reasonable reach for now. Chateau Kirwan wines from multiple vintages, and Charmes de Kirwan are available from Golden Wines, Inc. at (02) 638-5025/27 or info@goldenwines.com.
The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux or FIJEV since 2010. E-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter at twitter.com/sherwinlao.
