Learn everything about Chateau Grand Mayne St. Emilion with wine tasting notes and wine with food pairing tips. Learn the best vintages, a history of the property and information on the vineyards and winemaking. If you want to read about other important, Bordeaux Chateaux: Links to all Bordeaux Wine Producer Profiles
Chateau Grand Mayne History, Overview
The name of Chateau Grand Mayne should be taken literally. Mayne comes from the word “manor”, which used to mean a quality home accompanied by a large parcel of land.
In this case, the name perfectly describes the St. Emilion estate of Grand Mayne. The construction of the original Saint Emilion chateau started at the end of the fifteenth century when it was created by the Laveau family.
The Laveau family can be traced back to Chateau Grand Mayne as early as 1685. Jacques Laveau was the founder of the St. Emilion estate. At the time it was created, Grand Mayne had 30 hectares under vine.
His son, Jean ended up purchasing, prized parcels of vineyard land from Chateau Soutard for a song from the Combret de Milon family.
This additional purchase allowed Laveau to enlarge the estate of Chateau Grand Mayne to almost 250 hectares. This included 62 hectares of vines on the plateau, the hillside and the foot of the sandy slopes of Saint Emilion.
Today, due to numerous transactions over the years, the Right Bank property is much smaller. Currently, Chateau Grand Mayne is closer to 15 hectares of vines. The Laveau family, who also owned Chateau Soutard ending up selling Grand Mayne in 1893.
Chateau Grand Mayne The Modern Era
The modern era of Chateau Grand Mayne begins in 1934, when Jean Nony, a well-known negociant purchased Grand Mayne from the Berbudeau family. The Nony family got their start as negociants during the 1920s. Jean Pierre Nony, the son of Jean Nony and his wife Marie Françoise Nony managed the estate from 1977 to 2001.
Since the death of her husband Jean Pierre, Marie-Françoise Nony continued managing Chateau Grand Mayne with the help of her two sons, Jean Antoine Nony and Damien Nony. In 2012, Jean Antoine Nony became the full-time General Manager of the estate. One of his first decisions was to begin a slow replanting program of the entire vineyard.
With Jean-Antoine Nony at the helm, starting with the 2015 vintage, Chateau Grand Mayne began making big improvements in quality. Part of that was due to bringing in Louis Mitjavile from Tertre Roteboeuf as their consultant. Mitjavile is no longer working with the estate. Michel Rolland acts as their consultant.
Chateau Grand Mayne Vineyards, Terroir, Grapes, Winemaking
The 17 hectare St. Emilion vineyard of Grand Mayne is planted to 78% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon. This shows an increase in Cabernet Franc over the past several years. In fact, it is the goal of the estate to continue adding more Cabernet Franc vines until they reach 35% of the vineyard.
The vines are on average close to 30 years of age. The vineyard is planted to a vine density of 5,500 vines per hectare for the older parcels. Slow replanting of the vineyard is being done at 6,700 vines per hectare.
The vineyard of Chateau Grand Mayne is located to the west of Saint Emilion, at the foot of the plateau. Even though the vineyard is in one large block of vines, Chateau Grand Mayne is the result of two different terroirs.
On the hillsides, which reach an elevation of 55 meters at its peak, Grand Mayne has vines planted in clay and limestone soils. A portion of these vines borders Chateau Beau-Sejour Becot. Further down the hillsides at the base of the slopes and in the flats, you find sand over clay which abuts the vines of Chateau Laroze.
To produce the wine of Chateau Grand Mayne, the vinification takes place in a combination of wooden vats and stainless steel tanks. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrels. The wine is then aged in a range of 70% to 80% new, French oak barrels for an average of 18 months before bottling.
The best vintages of Chateau Grand Mayne are: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2010, 2009, 2005 and 2000.
There is a second wine, Filia de Grand Mayne. Previously it was known as Les Plantes du Mayne, making its debut in 1986. The average annual production is close to 6,000 cases of Chateau Grand Mayne per vintage. All the work in the vineyards and cellars is really starting to pay off. You can clearly taste the improvements in the wine, especially starting with the 2015 vintage.
When to Drink Chateau Grand Mayne, Anticipated Maturity, Decanting Time
Chateau Grand Mayne is better with at least 5-8 years of bottle age. Of course, that can vary slightly, depending on the vintage. Chateau Grand Mayne is best enjoyed in the first 6-25 years of life.
Young vintages can be decanted for 1-2 hours. This allows the wine to soften and open its perfume. Older vintages might need very little decanting, just enough to remove the sediment.
Serving Chateau Grand Mayne with Wine and Food Pairings
Chateau Grand Mayne is best served at 15.5 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The cool, almost cellar temperature gives the wine more freshness and lift.
Chateau Grand Mayne is best paired with all types of classic meat dishes, veal, pork, beef, lamb, duck, game, roast chicken, roasted, braised, and grilled dishes. Chateau Grand Mayne is also good when matched with Asian dishes, rich fish courses like tuna, mushrooms, and pasta.
Château Grand Mayne Wine Tasting Notes
22 Vintages 171,056 Views Sort by Vintage-Rating
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2023
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Flowers cherries, plums, and licorice pop in the nose. Medium-bodied, elegant, juicy, and silky, with sweetness, and lift in the plummy, licorice oriented finish. Drink from 2027-2045. 92-94 Pts. 1,046 Views Tasted May 4, 2024 |
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2022
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Elegant, floral, fresh, and loaded with sweet, ripe, plums, cherries, licorice, and cocoa, the wine is medium-boded, refined, vibrant and silky and while it can be enjoyed in its youth, it is only going to get better with age. Drink from 2025-2045. 93-95 Pts. 2,575 Views Tasted May 8, 2023 |
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2021
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
They are clearly on a roll at Grand Mayne lately. Even in this difficult vintage, the wine has more than enough black cherries, licorice, plums, espresso, and flowers to keep it interesting. Medium-bodied, soft, round and forward, this is going to be easy to enjoy on release, or with just a bit of age. Drink from 2025-2044. 518 Views Tasted Mar 9, 2024Earthy, plums licorice, flowers and a touch of cocoa on the nose creates the enticing bouquet. The freshness in the bright red fruits shines in the soft, silky, vibrant, medium-bodied, savory-edged, coffee bean tinted palate. Drink from 2023-2045. 91-93 1,392 Views Tasted May 20, 2022 |
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2020
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
The complex nose, with its array of flowers, espresso, black cherries, black raspberries and black plums wide a side of mint focuses you on the glass. But it is on the palate, with its freshness, silky tannins and layers of mineral-edged, vibrant, sweet, fruits with their closing notes of plums, and salty, dark chocolate that seals the deal. This could be the best vintage of Grand Mayne ever produced! Drink from 2025-2050. 1,917 Views Tasted Mar 21, 2023Holding a bit in reserve, with coaxing, you find flowers, licorice, menthol, tobacco, herbs and a myriad of plums on the nose and palate. Refined, classic, energetic, silky and fresh, the elegant finish blends salty, slightly dusty tannins, sweet, red fruits, spice and zip. 92-94 Pts 2,249 Views Tasted May 20, 2021 |
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2019
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Floral, earthy, smoky, and racy, the wine exudes class and charm with its layers of medium-bodied, soft, fresh, pure, silky, vibrant, mineralistic, red berries. Vibrant and refined, with length and complexity, this is so good now and it is only going to get better with age. This is a clear contender for the best vintage of Grand Mayne ever produced! Drink from 2024-2042. 3,155 Views Tasted Mar 29, 2022Quite floral, you also find notes of licorice, espresso and earthy nuances to accompany all that beautiful, ripe, red fruit. Soft, silky and refined, this elegant, medium-bodied charmer will be better with 5-7 years in the cellar and should age and evolve for another 2 decades after that. 92-94 Pts 5,474 Views Tasted Jun 8, 2020 |
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2018
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
This is my favorite vintage of Grand Mayne yet. The wine is rich, lush, round and packed with sweet, ripe, fresh, opulent black cherries, plums and chocolate. The wine has good concentration, a nose of smoke, licorice, roasted, dark red pit fruits and a finish stocked with dusty, chocolate-covered, fresh dark plums. This is so good now. But its best day are a few years away. Start drinking this in 2028 and enjoy it for the next 15 or more years after that. Grand Mayne is not a showy style of wine. It is more like a refined, elegant version of Classic Bordeaux. 5,178 Views Tasted Apr 3, 2021With a floral accented perfume, you also find ripe, black cherries, thyme, smoke and espresso. Medium-bodied, elegant, round, soft, silky and fresh, the sweet, red fruit in the finish hits the spot. 93-95 Pts 7,603 Views Tasted Apr 19, 2019 |
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2017
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Classic in style, the wine is more interesting on the nose with its herb, tree leaf, flowers, smoke and bright red fruit nose and palate. Medium-bodied, with a piquant red berry, olive and dark cocoa mid-palate and finish, the wine will be better with at least another 6-7 years in the cellar. 3,183 Views Tasted Apr 3, 2021This is a sweet, soft, polished, medium-bodied wine. Forward with bright cherries and black raspberries, licorice and just a hint of espresso, the tannins are soft and the finish has a bright, plummy appeal. 3,124 Views Tasted Apr 26, 2018 |
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2016
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Quite youthful as you would expect, still it is difficult not to be impressed by the concentration, ripeness, elegance, freshness and energy here. Parked on the corner of elegance, freshness and opulence, the fruit shows good purity, length and vibrance. Kuch of what the wine has to offer is held in reserve at the moment. The wine be best after 2026. 5,543 Views Tasted Apr 3, 2021With truffle notes to kick this off, the wine is plush, polished, pure and fresh. Medium/full bodied with sweet, fresh, dark cherries at its core, and soft, elegant textures on the palate, the wine needs a few years in the bottle for everything to fill out. 3,351 Views Tasted Sep 21, 2019They have been on fire here lately and the 2016 continues that trend. Silky, plush, polished, pure and fresh, this finesse driven wine offers good concentration and lift, with ripe, sweet, dark red fruits and licorice from start to finish. 3,097 Views Tasted Feb 11, 2019Silky, lushly textured and with, ripe, polished tannins, the wine offers intensity, concentration and purity of fruit. The sweet, ripe, dark plums and black cherries with freshness, giving it a lot of vitality, along with the added nuances of licorice, smoke and flowers. There is more depth and silkyness here than found in previous vintages. 4,156 Views Tasted Apr 29, 2017 |
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2015
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Lush, ripe, ripe, opulent and fruity, the wine exudes espresso, plum, vanilla, dark red pit fruits, flowers, herbs and smoke in its perfume. Elegant, silky, plush and fresh, give it 3-4 more years in the cellar and it will be drinking just fabulously. 5,986 Views Tasted Apr 3, 2021Already deceptively easy to drink, the wine is soft, polished, medium-bodied, elegant and fruity with a great core of ripe, plums and cherries. You can enjoy this today, although it is still primary, or give it another 5 years for more secondary nuances. 5,150 Views Tasted Jul 22, 2019Floral in nature, elegant in style, with freshness and silky tannins, the wine is loaded with sweet, ripe plums, cherry, thyme and earth. 3,923 Views Tasted Jul 12, 2017Silky, plush, concentrated and showing a lot more depth than I ever recall tasting at Grand Mayne, this wine has lush, polished curves for tannins, a wealth of sensuous ripe berries and licorice and a splash of liqueur in the finish. From 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine reached 14.5% with a pH of 3.65. 3,706 Views Tasted Apr 29, 2016 |
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2014
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium-bodied, classically styled, forward, early-drinking wine with a focus on its floral, spice, red fruit, herb and thyme character. The finish is bright, fresh and herbal. You can drink this now, or wait a few years. This will probably not make old bones. I'd opt for drinking it over the next 12-15 years. 4,118 Views Tasted Apr 3, 2021Forward, medium bodied, charmer, with smoke, earth and fresh plums, with a spicy accent. 4,870 Views Tasted Feb 5, 2017Earth, plum, licorice and black cherry on the nose, this medium-bodied wine has an elegant, mineral-driven, fresh, plum character in the finish. 89-91 Pts 2,908 Views Tasted Apr 27, 2015 |
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2013
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Licorice, coffee bean and plum are on the nose, backed with a medium-bodied, lighter, fresh style of wine with a juicy plum finish. Produced from a blend of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 88-90 Pts 3,403 Views Tasted Apr 28, 2014 |
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2012
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied, finesse expression of St. Emilion leaves you with a soft, silky textured wine, sweet, ripe, juicy cherries and kirsch and a silky, smooth finish. The wine was made from a blend of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. 3,985 Views Tasted Mar 11, 2015With licorice, black raspberries, truffle and spice notes, this silky-textured, medium-bodied wine has soft tannins and a chocolate-, fennel- and raspberry-filled finish. 89-91 Pts 4,375 Views Tasted Apr 26, 2013 |
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2011
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
With an oaky, dark cherry and licorice scented nose, this medium bodied, forward styled wine will deliver its red berry charms on release. There is a touch of dryness in the finish that takes away from the end note. Else, I would have scored it higher. 3,746 Views Tasted Feb 20, 2014From an assemblage of 75% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, licorice, flowers, chocolate and black cherry scents are found in this wine with a strong sense of minerality and a cherry-filled finish. 90-91 Pts 2,230 Views Tasted Apr 24, 2012 |
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2010
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Once the initial notes of flowers and black raspberries have settled in, you find licorice, cocoa, and black cherries to fill in the spaces. Medium-bodied, elegant, lifted and still softening, this is a good time to start opening a cork. The wine blends 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2023-2040. 2,491 Views Tasted Nov 23, 2023Grand Mayne Deep dark ruby colored, this rich, ripe, round textured wine offers a big, fresh, juicy mouthful of licorice, fleshy berries, spice and chocolate. This wine ends with a long ripe, plum. blackberry and fennel finish which offers real character. This is the best wine I’ve tasted from Grand Mayne. 92-94 Pts 3,108 Views Tasted Apr 22, 2011 |
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2009
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Ready to go, the wine is medium-bodied, elegant, fresh, soft and round, with loads of earthy. dark red fruits, wet forest, flowers and espresso to round things out. 3,165 Views Tasted Sep 26, 2019Dark, black raspberry, licorice, earth and spice aromas open to a supple, round, expressive wine that ends with a round, chocolate and plum filled finish. 7,087 Views Tasted Feb 10, 20122009 Grand Mayne is deeply colored with black raspberry, plum, boysenberry, fennel, and coffee scents. Full bodied with round tannins and concentrated berries, the wine ends with dark berry and juicy plum flavors. 91-93 Pts 4,624 Views Tasted Jun 28, 2010 |
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2008
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Grand Mayne is on a streak. The wine keeps getting better, Black cherry, licorice, spice, forest floor and oak aromas are easy to find Elegant, and refined, the soft textured wine ends with a chocolate, blackberry and kirsch filled finish. 4,770 Views Tasted Jan 25, 201108 Château Grand Mayne is deeply colored with a soft texture. The blend of dark and red fruits, accompanied by licorice, herbs, and chocolate, makes a nice perfume. This elegantly styled wine finishes with ripe, round, plumy, blackberry flavors. 90-93 Pts 4,880 Views Tasted Jul 1, 2009 |
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2006
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
A bit oaky and on the firm side, the red fruits are crisp and bright and while they pop, it could be a bit more generous. 2,085 Views Tasted Feb 9, 2019 |
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2005
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Coffee, herbs and nice fruit are supported with good structure with the addition of 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Sweet entry. Silky tannins and a nice finish. 6,563 Views Tasted Jan 20, 2008 |
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2004
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied and fully mature, this elegant styled wine blends sweet, red fruits with forest and spearmint aromas to create a soft textured wine that is not meant for long term aging. 4,306 Views Tasted Nov 30, 2014 |
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2003
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Better on the nose than the palate with its earthy, black raspberry and cherry tones. Medium bodied, with a cherry filled finish, this is offering all of its pleasure today. I'd opt to drink this sooner than later. 5,116 Views Tasted Dec 18, 2013Jammy plum and cherries, minerality and earth come through, but with a medium body and having reached maturity at an early age, I’d consume this St. Emilion on the young side. 5,994 Views Tasted May 2, 2012 |
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2000
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Fully mature, the wine is medium-bodied, elegant, soft, and silky, a good sense of purity to all the ripe, sweet, red fruits, flowers, earth, and espresso nuances on the nose and palate. 2,921 Views Tasted Sep 30, 2021This starts off with fresh herbs, juicy dark fruit, hints of licorice and chocolate. The wine is ripe, round and ready to drink 7,890 Views Tasted Mar 5, 2010 |
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1998
Château Grand Mayne (St. Émilion Grand Cru)
Medium bodied, finesse styled wine, with more complexity on the nose, with its, wet earth, floral, thyme, cherry and tobacco nuance, than on its fresh, soft, elegant, red berry and spice palate. This is at peak and should be drunk up over the next 5-7 years. 4,095 Views Tasted Aug 2, 2017 |
