Château Belgrave

The château

Belgrave was classified in 1855 as Coutanceau, for the family that had bought the Darrous métairie in 1823; the broker Guillaume Lawton had listed it in 1815 as Brisson, in Saint-Julien. The estate as it stands is the work of Bruno Devès, who bought it in 1851, renamed it Bellegrave, built the house on the site of a hunting pavilion and gathered the vineyard into one piece. Marcel Alibert followed in 1898, and Maison Dourthe has owned it since 1979. Bertrand Delavelle has run the property since 2018, and Alex Blanchard the vineyard since 2020.

The 60 hectares are still the block Devès left: 2 high rises of deep gravel over a clay subsoil, with gravelly sand and outcrops of clay, on old Garonne terraces nearly 2 million years old. A stream is all that separates them from the Saint-Julien appellation. Fifty hectares are planted, 30.5 of them to Cabernet Sauvignon, 18.5 to Merlot and 1 to Petit Verdot, and three quarters of the vineyard stands at 10,000 vines a hectare, against 6,700 on the slopes, which is close planting for the Haut-Médoc.

The vat room holds 33 stainless steel vats of different sizes, 6 of them small truncated cones, and the half buried barrel cellar was rebuilt in 2007. Landes sheep graze the vines in winter and 850 meters of hedgerow have been planted; a bird protection survey in 2023 counted 54 species of bird, 33 of butterfly, 10 of bat and 7 of amphibian on the estate. Diane de Belgrave, created in 1987, is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Saint-Laurent-Médoc

Classification

Cinquième Cru Classé 1855, under the name Coutanceau

Owner

Maison Dourthe, since 1979

Direction

Bertrand Delavelle, since 2018; Alex Blanchard, vineyard, since 2020

Vineyard

60 hectares in one block, unchanged since 1851, 50 of them planted; 10,000 vines a hectare over three quarters of it, 6,700 on the slopes

Soil

2 rises of deep gravel over clay; a stream divides the estate from Saint-Julien Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 30.5 hectares, Merlot 18.5, Petit Verdot 1

Farming

Landes sheep and 850 meters of hedgerow; a 2023 survey counted 54 species of bird and 33 of butterfly

Cellar

33 stainless steel vats, 6 of them small truncated cones; a half buried barrel cellar rebuilt in 2007

Wines

Château Belgrave; Diane de Belgrave, created in 1987