Château Belles-Graves

The château

Before it was Belles-Graves it was Drouilleau. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list Drouilleau at Néac from their early editions: under Mme veuve Alex. Durand in 1868, at 20 to 25 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and from 1874 as Château-Drouilleau, a cru bourgeois of Dr G. Lafitte, whose vineyard they count among the best of the commune. By 1886 it belonged to Léonce Mauze. Their notice of 1893 gives 15 hectares, 11 of them vines on gravel, planted two thirds with Cabernet Sauvignon and one third with Merlot, on a soil they call identical to that of Pomerol next door, making a wine with a sève like Pomerol’s; a very different vineyard from today’s. The buildings went up in the 18th century, in the chartreuse style of the summer houses of the Bordeaux bourgeoisie, around a rectangular courtyard.

In November 1909 Léonce Mauze’s heirs sold the estate, then 10 hectares, to Élysée Absalon Clerjaud for 20,000 francs. On November 10, 1938 he sold it, at 11.18 hectares, to Jean Theallet for 140,000 francs, and the family renamed it Château Belles-Graves. His widow Hermine carried on, and in 1989 her grandson Xavier Piton took over the running of the estate; he presided over the Lalande-de-Pomerol syndicate in 1995, the year a family trust was set up. Land bought in 1989, 1998 and 2005 brought the whole hillside into the vineyard, and guest rooms opened in the west wing in 2002. Laurent Paulin is associate director and Henri Barthe vineyard manager.

The 17 hectares are planted 88% Merlot and 12% Cabernet Franc, and the hillside holds 3 soils: around the château, clay and gravel over a subsoil rich in iron oxide; between the château and the road, a flat, very gravelly stretch of flint and quartz; to the north, a colder soil of sand and silt. Underneath, layers of stone and sand with red clay alternate with thin beds of blue clay. The soil is hoed and turned, with organic fertilizers and measured treatments, and the grapes are picked by hand and sorted in the cellar. In 2018 the old barrel cellar in the west wing became a vat room of 9 double-skinned, temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. The château wine comes from the old vines, 40 years old on average, and ages in oak barrels of 225 liters, the share of new wood set by tasting, with 2 rackings and a fining with egg white; the estate bottles its own wine. Les Terrasses de Belles-Graves, from the young vines, is aged in vat, and La Cuvée “X” comes from the best parcels: 2,291 numbered bottles in 2016.

At a glance

Appellation

Lalande-de-Pomerol

Commune

Néac

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Theallet Piton Trust, since 1995; the family since 1938

Direction

Xavier Piton, since 1989; Laurent Paulin, associate director; Henri Barthe, vineyard manager

Vineyard

17 hectares around the château; old vines 40 years old on average

Soil

Clay and gravel over iron oxide; flint and quartz gravel; sand and silt Terroir of Lalande-de-Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 88%, Cabernet Franc 12%

Farming

Soil hoed and turned; organic fertilizers; measured treatments

Cellar

Picked by hand; 9 temperature-controlled steel vats, 2018; oak barrels of 225 liters

Wines

Château Belles-Graves; Les Terrasses de Belles-Graves; La Cuvée “X”

In history

Château Drouilleau, a cru bourgeois of Néac, from 1874; bought by Jean Theallet on November 10, 1938