How we live New Bordeaux.
An open standard for honest Bordeaux, one we helped shape — and one we show here day after day, plot by plot, vintage by vintage.
What matters is the glass, not the label.
We make wine for the moment someone opens the bottle. Everything we do — reading each plot on its own, giving the wine its time, naming honestly what is in the glass — serves this one goal: that the experience in the glass becomes as complete as possible. A wine should be worth opening.
This attitude has a name we helped shape: New Bordeaux. What the standard means, and whom it is open to, is set out at new-bordeaux.com. On this page we show how we, LaSuite aux Conseillans, live it day after day — plot by plot, vintage by vintage.
Our yardstick for every decision.
A living place, not a monoculture
A New Bordeaux wine comes from a living landscape — trees, hedges, water and vines together — and the health of the whole place carries into the glass.
Here, five hectares of vines sit within a 19-hectare estate of woodland, meadow and water, protected as a Site Classé since 1975. Since 2023 we have planted around 2,000 trees and hedges; we farm certified organic and to HVE4, on the way toward regenerative practice. Our bee colonies are the most honest gauge of all — their honey shows how healthy the place really is. What lives around the vines can later be tasted in the glass. More on our ecology.
Built to last, sold only when ready
A New Bordeaux wine is made to develop with time, and only goes on sale once it has reached its drinking window. The estate carries the years of ageing, so that what reaches the glass is ready.
We hold every wine in our own cellar until it is ready to drink, and release it only then — by ripeness, not by vintage and not by cash flow. We name the drinking windows openly, for the Sarabande, for example, 2025 to 2036. We bear the risk of those years, not you. For us, time is not a cost — it is part of the wine.
A price for the wine, not the name
A New Bordeaux wine is priced by what it honestly costs to make it well — not by the label, by scores or by resale value.
Our bottle price is built from the ground up. It covers what a vintage truly costs, pays the team fairly and allows the family who run the estate a normal living. What is needed beyond that flows back: into the place, with new hedges and trees where the ecosystem needs them, into cellar equipment, and into barrique where a wine deserves it, rather than into the cheapest possible steel. The price follows from all of this — and that is exactly what makes it fair. Nothing in it serves scarcity, a score or resale.
Knowledge over convention
A New Bordeaux wine comes from understanding — of the soil, the plot and the year — rather than from habit or reputation. And where a rule would force the lesser wine, the better one wins, honestly declared.
We read and vinify sixteen plots across four terroirs plot by plot and publish our soil and analysis values. For plant health we fly our own, officially licensed drones. The estate was the working ground of Jean Ribéreau-Gayon, one of the co-founders of modern oenology and for many years the estate's owner — we carry that tradition forward. And when a rule stands in the way of the better wine, we deliberately depart from it: with Caprice, a single-varietal Alvarinho that Bordeaux allows only up to five percent, and which we honestly declare a Vin de France. The more precisely we understand the place, the less we need to intervene.
Made by the people who own it — and open about everything
A New Bordeaux wine is made by the people who own the estate and live on it — and everything essential about it, the work, the decisions, the numbers, is open to anyone who wants to know.
Marc and Ellen Ruhland live at the domaine in Saint-Caprais-de-Bordeaux and run it themselves. We explain the soil, the history and the people behind it down to the single plot, and publish analysis values and drinking windows. And because each cuvée is a movement of our Suite, we even make the intention behind it audible — in concerts for young musicians and through the Fonds aux Conseillans. Anyone who wants to know how a wine came about will find the answer down to the exact plot.
An Alvarinho in Bordeaux.
In Bordeaux, Alvarinho is only permitted up to five percent. We make a single-varietal one — formally a Vin de France, grown on the sands of the Molasse de l'Agenais. Rooted in the place and independent where a rule stands in the way of the better wine.
This is New Bordeaux in a single wine: Caprice.
Four questions on that.
What sets a New Bordeaux apart from a classic Bordeaux?
Less the label than the way of working. We harvest plot by plot, release each wine only when it is ready to drink, publish our analysis values and explain our decisions. New Bordeaux works like a compass: it sets the direction, while the path is decided anew each vintage. What the standard covers in detail is set out at new-bordeaux.com.
Why do you make a single-varietal Alvarinho as a Vin de France?
In Bordeaux, Alvarinho—a grape variety from northern Portugal—is only permitted up to five percent. We produce a single-varietal and accept that it is formally a Vin de France. Grown on the sand of the Molasse de l'Agenais, it yields a wine that is otherwise unique in Bordeaux: Caprice.
Who bears the risk of long maturities?
We do. Many houses sell young and leave the ageing to the buyer. We take the opposite path: we store every wine ourselves until it has reached its drinking window, and only then release it. It costs us years and cellar space — but in return you will never get a wine from us that isn't ready yet.
Is New Bordeaux only for LaSuite aux Conseillans — or for everyone?
For everyone. New Bordeaux is an open standard, not a protected brand — any estate in Bordeaux can adopt it. We helped shape it and were the first example; we do not own it. What it means, and whom it is open to, is set out at new-bordeaux.com.
In the end, what counts is what reaches the glass — plot by plot, vintage by vintage.
Last updated: 5. September 2026