Château Beauséjour J. Duffau-Lagarrosse

The château

The history is shared with Beau-Séjour Bécot until 1869. The cru came from the noble house of Carles de Figeac; Armand de Carles-Trojet sold it in 1823 to Troquart, who enlarged it with the estate of Saint-Martin and passed it in 1847 to Ducarpe junior. It was already among the best of the côte: in the first class of the Haut-Saint-Émilion in the list of 1841, at 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) under Troquart, and among the wines of the first marque, under Ducarpe, for William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, in his edition of 1853. In 1869 Pierre-Paulin Ducarpe divided it between his 2 children, and the daughter’s half went to the Duffau-Lagarrosse family. By 1897 Dr C. Duffau-Lagarrosse was making 18 tonneaux, and by 1908 the cru had gold medals from the Paris exhibitions of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900.

Beauséjour has been a Premier Grand Cru Classé B since the first classification of 1955, and the list approved in September 2022 confirmed it among the 14 Premiers Grands Crus Classés. The family held it until April 2021, when it sold to Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse, an enologist of the 9th generation, and Prisca Courtin, whose family owns Clarins. Axel Marchal, professor of enology at the Bordeaux vine and wine institute, and Julien Viaud, agronomist and enologist, have advised the estate since 2021.

The sale went through the SAFER, the State-supervised body that oversees sales of farmland. The sellers had first chosen the Cuvelier family, owners of Clos Fourtet, pending the SAFER’s decision; in April 2021 the SAFER chose instead the project of Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse and the Courtin family. The Cuvelier family’s company and the young grower it had proposed to install asked the Libourne court to annul the SAFER’s choice and the sale, which the SAFER and the buyers defended. In February 2024 the Bordeaux court of appeal held the challenge admissible, without ruling on its merits. The Libourne court heard the case on October 22, 2026, and set its decision for December 17, 2026.

The property is just under 8 hectares, 6.8 of them in vines, in one unbroken piece facing south and southwest on a steady incline, over 3 soils: hard, fossil-rich limestone on the upper plateau, sand and clay of the Fronsac molasse on the slopes beside it, old colluvial sand and clay lower down. It is planted 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Franc, vines 40 to 50 years old on average. The wine ferments in small cement vats and matures for more than 1 year in barrels, 60% of them new, in the limestone quarries cut under the property. About 20,000 bottles are made. The estate holds ISO 14001 and Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), and Croix de Beauséjour is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, by the church of Saint-Martin de Mazerat

Classification

Premier Grand Cru Classé B, from 1955 to 2022; Michelin Guide, 1 grape (2026)

Owners

Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse and Prisca Courtin, since April 2021; the Duffau-Lagarrosse family before them

Direction

Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse

Consultants

Axel Marchal and Julien Viaud, since 2021

Vineyard

6.8 hectares of vines on just under 8 hectares, in one piece; vines 40 to 50 years old

Soil

Fossil-rich limestone on the plateau, Fronsac molasse sand and clay on the slope, old colluvial sand and clay below Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 75%, Cabernet Franc 25%

Farming

ISO 14001; Haute Valeur Environnementale

Cellar

Small cement vats; more than 1 year in barrel, 60% new, in the quarries under the property

Production

About 20,000 bottles a year

Wines

Château Beauséjour J. Duffau-Lagarrosse; Croix de Beauséjour