APPELLATION : SAINT-EMILION
Le Dôme is the embodiment of a singular philosophy: that passion, skill and foresight can produce something that challenges even the most hardened perspectives. By juxtaposing cutting-edge winemaking facilities with raw, natural materials, the forty-metre diameter dome-shaped building looks like a spaceship that landed in Saint-Émilion and decided to stay. Conceived by Jonathan Maltus, a petrochemical engineer turned pioneering “garagiste”, and designed by Lord Norman Foster, also famed for London’s Gherkin and the Berlin Reichstag, Le Dôme is where visionary winemaking meets visionary architecture. The partially subterranean building, inaugurated in 2021, sits at the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage landscape.
GOOD TO KNOW
Jonathan Maltus became the first Englishman to receive a perfect 100-point Robert Parker score, and was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to the wine world. When he bought the first Le Dôme vines, he believed he was purchasing Merlot, it was his vineyard manager who revealed the parcels were in fact overwhelmingly Cabernet Franc.