Château Bellevue

The estate

The fief belonged to the Lacaze family, who built its chartreuse in the 17th century, and vines are recorded on the site as far back as the 3rd century. Gaston Lacaze is the owner that Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed against Bellevue from 1868 to 1898, at 12 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in the 1870s and 1880s and 20 by 1893; the name is common in the Gironde, and their list of medals of 1893 names Lacaze to make clear which Bellevue it means. Louis Horeau took the estate in 1938, and it passed to his sons-in-law, Jacques Pradel de Lavaux and René de Coninck. It belongs today to the Pradel de Lavaux family, which dates its own winemaking to 1642 and runs estates across Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, Fronsac, Lalande-de-Pomerol and Bordeaux.

Bellevue was a Grand Cru Classé in 1955, 1969, 1986 and 1996. The classification of 2006 struck it off, but the courts then annulled that list, the classification of 1996 came back into force and parliament prolonged it to the harvest of 2011, so the demotion never reached a label. The revision of 2012 classified the estate again, and the list approved in September 2022 confirmed it.

The vines are 1 continuous parcel of 3.10 hectares high on the limestone plateau, at 75 meters, on slopes facing east, south and southwest, the clay and limestone growing richer in limestone toward the top. It is all Merlot, vines 40 years old on average at 6,000 to 7,500 a hectare, in conversion to organic farming since 2016. The harvest is entirely by hand; fermentation is in stainless steel, concrete and wood under temperature control, with a maceration of 2 to 3 weeks, and the wine spends 16 to 20 months in French oak before it is bottled at the château. About 20,000 bottles are made.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, high on the limestone plateau, at 75 meters

Classification

Grand Cru Classé, 1955 to 1996, 2012 and 2022; struck off in 2006, a list the courts annulled

Owners

The Pradel de Lavaux family

Vineyard

3.10 hectares in 1 continuous parcel; vines 40 years old on average, at 6,000 to 7,500 a hectare

Ground

Clay and limestone, richer in limestone toward the top

Grapes

Merlot, and nothing else

Farming

Conversion to organic begun in 2016

Cellar

Picked by hand; stainless steel, concrete and wood; maceration of 2 to 3 weeks; 16 to 20 months in French oak

Production

About 20,000 bottles

Sources: Château Bellevue, a short presentation · Pradel de Lavaux, Château Bellevue · Pradel de Lavaux, history and know-how · Association des Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Émilion, Château Bellevue · Conseil des Vins de Saint-Émilion, Château Bellevue · Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, the Saint-Émilion classification of 2022