Château Barateau

The château

The vineyard is older than the house: it goes back to the 18th century, and in 1820 the abbé Barateau, priest of Saint-Laurent, came to bless the first stone of the château, which took his name. It stands 1 kilometer west of the village of Saint-Laurent-Médoc, on the road to Saint-Julien. The trade noticed it early. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed it from 1868 under the widow Véron, at 70 to 80 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and from 1874 among the crus bourgeois supérieurs; in 1883 they described 27 hectares of the finest vines, the Cabernets in the lead, on an estate of about 45, and a wine of much body, very fine and much appreciated abroad. It passed to the widow Enout and then, by 1898, to Daniel Tandonnet, and in 1922, under Mme Daniel Tandonnet, only about 15 of its 85 hectares were in vines, making 50 tonneaux.

Today the château belongs to M. Li, and Sébastien Planteur is director of operations. The vineyard has grown back to about 28 hectares, split equally between Saint-Laurent, on clay and limestone, and Saint-Sauveur, on sandy gravel. It is planted 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot, at 6,500 to 8,000 vines a hectare, with vines 30 years old on average, and has held Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) since 2017. Most of the crop is picked by machine and sorted on the harvester and again at reception; the best parcels, for Le Prestige de Barateau, are picked by hand. Fermentation runs at 26°C with daily pumping over, and the wine spends 3 to 4 weeks in concrete vats and then at least 12 months in French oak, with one quarter of the barrels renewed each year. Barateau makes about 160,000 bottles and was a Cru Bourgeois in the classifications of 2020 and 2025.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Saint-Laurent-Médoc, with vines at Saint-Sauveur

Classification

Cru Bourgeois, 2020 and 2025

Owner

M. Li

Direction

Sébastien Planteur, director of operations

Vineyard

About 28 hectares; 6,500 to 8,000 vines a hectare; vines 30 years old on average

Soil

Clay and limestone at Saint-Laurent; sandy gravel at Saint-Sauveur Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 48%, Petit Verdot 2%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, since 2017

Cellar

3 to 4 weeks in concrete vats; at least 12 months in French oak, one quarter renewed each year

Production

About 160,000 bottles

Wines

Château Barateau; Le Prestige de Barateau, picked by hand

In history

A cru bourgeois supérieur of the widow Véron from 1874; the Tandonnet family from 1898