Château Boyd-Cantenac

The château

Boyd and Cantenac Brown were one estate before they were 2, and the split is why the name on the 1855 list is Boyd. The rank was older than the list: the broker Labadie had made it a third growth of Cantenac in 1776, 79 years earlier. From the end of the 19th century until about 1921, under its owner Abel Laurent, the crop of Boyd-Cantenac went into other bottles. The Ginestet family, Bordeaux négociants (merchants who buy from the châteaux and sell on) who then owned Château Margaux, bought it in 1929, sold the buildings to Château Margaux, which left the growth without a cellar of its own, and in 1932 sold the vines to the Guillemets. The company that holds it is still registered at Château Pouget, the fourth growth the same family had bought in 1906.

Lucien Guillemet, an enologist and agricultural engineer, has run Boyd-Cantenac and Pouget since 1996, now with his nephew Olivier Salques, and he makes the wine himself. The vineyard is 17 hectares of sandy siliceous gravel with very little clay, at 10,000 vines a hectare, the vines 38 years old on average, planted 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 7% Petit Verdot. Fermentation is in stainless steel and concrete, and the wine spends 12 to 18 months in French oak. The estate uses no chemical fertilizer, gave up insecticides in the early 2000s for mating disruption, and keeps a protected wetland. It is not a member of the Union des Grands Crus, which is why it is missing from the big tastings. La Croix de Boyd-Cantenac and Jacques Boyd, made since 1997, are the second wines.

The style is true to Margaux: perfumed and silky, more about finesse than power. The 1999, which I tasted in September 2025, came from an uneven year that treated Margaux well, and it was all approachability and charm.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Commune

Cantenac

Classification

Troisième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

The Guillemet family, since 1932

Direction

Lucien Guillemet, since 1996, with his nephew Olivier Salques; no consulting enologist

Vineyard

17 hectares; 10,000 vines a hectare; vines 38 years old on average

Soil

Sandy siliceous gravel with very little clay Terroir of Margaux →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot 25%, Cabernet Franc 8%, Petit Verdot 7%

Farming

No chemical fertilizer; mating disruption in place of insecticides; a protected wetland

Cellar

Stainless steel and concrete; 12 to 18 months in French oak

Wines

Château Boyd-Cantenac; La Croix de Boyd-Cantenac; Jacques Boyd, since 1997

The house

No buildings of its own since 1929; the company is registered at Château Pouget

In history

A third growth of Cantenac for the broker Labadie in 1776