The wine world lost one of its brightest lights on March 29, when Christine Valette, proprietor of Château Troplong Mondot in Bordeaux’s sub-region of Saint-Émilion, departed after a long battle against cancer. Cheerful, inquisitive, warm and witty, she may be the single most 
charming vintner whom I have ever met, and I have met more than 1,200 of them during site visits over the past two decades. In addition to being an absolutely sparkling human being, she was also an exemplary wine producer who greatly elevated Troplong Mondot’s stature during her time at the helm.
After assuming control in the early 1980s, Ms. Valette oversaw dramatic improvements at Troplong Mondot, elevating it from a middling position in the Bordeaux firmament to uncontested star status, and ascending to the rank of Premier Grand Cru Classé B in the 2012 St.-Émilion classification. She thoroughly modernized all of the winemaking facilities and drastically lowered crop loads in the vineyard to assure full ripeness and concentration in the finished wine, which became much more open and expressive–just as the property itself was vastly enlivened by her vivacious presence.
I was fortunate to dine with Christine twice in the venerable chateau (dating from 1745), and both evenings were ones to remember. In the first instance, in 1996, I was traveling with my 
friend and WRO colleague Paul Lukacs. Christine somehow managed to get wind of the fact that our visit was falling on Paul’s 40th birthday, and consequently spent all day thoughtfully preparing two gracious offerings–for two people whom she had never met.
She scoured local sources to secure a wine from the year of Paul’s birth, which was no small feat, as 1956 was an exceedingly bad vintage marked by a catastrophic frost. When we arrived at the table, there sat a bottle of Carraudes de Lafite ‘56, next to a home-made version of Lamproie a la Bordelaise, which is a classic local dish of Lamprey Eel in a Bordeaux wine sauce. It was Christine’s first attempt at the dish, which her wickedly funny husband, Xavier Pariente, criticized ruthlessly. Christine took this with amazingly good cheer, laughingly layering her own self-deprecating critique of the dish atop that of her husband’s.
Who would do such things, for total strangers, while running an important business and raising four daughters? I was astonished at the time, and I’m astonished still.
The eel was indeed pretty awful, and the wine was just okay, but the night was truly wonderful thanks to Christine’s endearing overture. I won’t belabor the details of my second dinner with her, in 2010 along with WRO’s Marguerite Thomas, except to say that it was an en famille
evening at the kitchen table, discussing politics and religion and life–but not Troplong Mondot. How cool is that? And how admirable and smart, too?
Not incidentally, the wines speak for themselves. (2010, 2011 and 2012 were all among the very top achievements of their respective vintages.) At the same time, though, they speak for–and of–Christine. May her graceful and beautiful soul rest in peace.
1