Château Beau-Site

The château

Beau-Site has a long record in the trade’s books. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list it at Saint-Estèphe under Grazilhon fils in 1868, at 80 to 100 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and from 1874, as Château Beau-Site-Grazilhon, among the crus bourgeois supérieurs of the commune. Their notice places it opposite Château Calon-Ségur, on magnificent gravel rises planted with vines of the first choice, with fine vaulted cellars that favored the keeping and improvement of the wines, and ranks it among the best bourgeois supérieurs of Saint-Estèphe. It made 95 tonneaux in 1883 and 100 from 1893; in 1898 J. Grazilhon exhibited both Château Beau-Site and Château Le Boscq, and in 1922 Mme M. Faugeras owned it, at 100 tonneaux, with the notice unchanged.

Marcel Borie, of the Bordeaux merchant house Borie-Manoux that his family founded in 1870, bought Château TrotteVieille in 1947 and Beau-Site in 1955. His son-in-law Émile Castéja succeeded him in 1961, and Philippe Castéja, the owner today, has run all the family properties and the merchant house since 2001. The château has been fully renovated, a stainless steel vat room built to match the parcels, and the teams of the Domaines Borie-Castéja du Médoc work its vineyard and cellar; the estate still keeps its underground cellar of the 18th century. Beau-Site is not in the Crus Bourgeois classifications of 2020 or 2025.

The vineyard, 40 hectares of deep gravel with vines of 35 years on average, slopes gently down to the Gironde and is farmed on reasoned lines. The 2020 is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc, fermented for 3 to 4 weeks in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats and aged 12 to 14 months in French oak barrels, 40% to 50% new, with Axel Marchal, doctor of enology, as enologist. The second wine is Château Haut-Vignoble Seguin.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Estèphe

Commune

Saint-Estèphe, beside Château Calon-Ségur

Classification

No classification

Owner

Philippe Castéja; in the family since Marcel Borie bought it in 1955

Direction

The teams of the Domaines Borie-Castéja du Médoc

Enologist

Axel Marchal

Vineyard

40 hectares; vines of 35 years on average

Soil

Deep gravel Terroir of Saint-Estèphe →

Grapes

The 2020: Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Merlot 25%, Petit Verdot 3%, Cabernet Franc 2%

Farming

Reasoned

Cellar

Temperature-controlled stainless steel vats; the 2020, 12 to 14 months in French oak, 40% to 50% new; an 18th-century underground cellar

Wines

Château Beau-Site; Château Haut-Vignoble Seguin

The house

Borie-Manoux, the family’s merchant house; also Château Batailley and Château Lynch-Moussas, Pauillac, and Château TrotteVieille, Saint-Émilion

In history

A cru bourgeois supérieur facing Calon-Ségur from 1874; 100 tonneaux from 1893