Château Biston-Brillette

The château

The name is old. William Franck, in the first edition of his Traité sur les vins du Médoc, in 1824, listed Biston under an owner of the same name, at 12 to 15 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). The double name Biston-Brillette appears in 1868, under Mme Ménessier, in the guide of Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, and by 1874 it stood among the crus bourgeois supérieurs of Moulis, at 40 tonneaux. It belonged to U. Daurat in 1893 and to Labrunie in 1922.

The modern estate is a family’s work. The Lagardes bought it in 1936; Christiane Lagarde married Michel Barbarin, and the family took it from 5 hectares to 15 and then, under Serge and Jean-Paul Barbarin, to 26 over 25 years. In 2024 the brothers sold it to Château de Malleret, the family estate at Le Pian-Médoc run by Paul Bordes. The line was not cut: Guillaume Barbarin, Jean-Paul’s son, looks after the vineyard and the cellar, with Kevin Gaillard, the technical director of Malleret.

What defines Biston-Brillette is its 2 soils. The Guitignan parcels lie on the Brillette gravel rise, northeast of Moulis; the Petit Poujeaux parcels on limestone of the Upper Eocene. The vineyard is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, at 6,500 to 9,000 vines a hectare, with Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 since 2015. The parcels are fermented separately in 21 temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, and Éric Boissenot consults. The second wine is Château Biston. It was classed Cru Bourgeois Supérieur in February 2020 and again in 2025. It is not to be confused with Château Brillette, also in Moulis, whose vineyards joined Château Chasse-Spleen in 2023.

At a glance

Appellation

Moulis-en-Médoc

Commune

Moulis-en-Médoc

Classification

Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, 2020 and 2025

Owner

Château de Malleret, since 2024; the Lagarde and Barbarin families, 1936 to 2024

Direction

Guillaume Barbarin, vineyard and cellar; Kevin Gaillard, technical director of Malleret

Consultant

Éric Boissenot

Vineyard

26 hectares; 6,500 to 9,000 vines a hectare

Soil

Gravel on the Brillette rise; limestone of the Upper Eocene Terroir of Moulis →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2015

Cellar

21 temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks

Wines

Château Biston-Brillette; Château Biston

Not to be confused with

Château Brillette, Moulis, whose vineyards joined Château Chasse-Spleen in 2023

In history

Biston under Biston in 1824; cru bourgeois supérieur, 40 tonneaux, in 1874