Château Carbonnieux

The château

Ramon Carbonnieu, sub-prior of the abbey of Sainte-Croix, held vines at Léognan in 1234, and the monks worked the land until the Hundred Years War emptied it. Jean de Ferron bought the property in 1519, and his family kept it 221 years before selling it back to the Benedictines of Sainte-Croix in 1740. Under them it became famous for its white. Dom Galéas was among the first here to blend varieties and to bottle, and by 1776 the whites stood first among the wines of Guyenne. The best story of the house belongs to these years: the monks, it was told, got their white past the Ottoman customs as mineral water for the Sultan’s palace. Guillory told it to the congress of French vignerons at Bordeaux in 1843, and William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, printed it in 1845. Thomas Jefferson came to taste in 1787.

The Revolution sold the estate in 1791 to the Bouchereau family, who held it until 1878. André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant whose Topographie de tous les vignobles connus of 1816 surveyed the vineyards of the world, put Carbonnieux, then counted at Villenave, in the first class of the white wines of France, beside Sillery and Montrachet: light, fine, delicate, with an aroma of clove and gunflint. A collection of vines was begun here in 1827, and by 1845 it held 1,032 varieties from across Europe and Madeira, with squares of Johannisberg Riesling. The de Labarre family followed in 1878, Martin, Mure and Ballet in 1894 and E. Doutreloux in 1920; in 1922 the property covered 200 hectares, 80 of them vines. Marc Perrin bought it in 1956, his son Antony rebuilt it and pressed for the creation of the Pessac-Léognan appellation, and Eric, Christine and Philibert Perrin run it now. Carbonnieux was classified in 1953, for red and for white, and the list took its present form with the decree of February 16, 1959.

The 100 hectares lie in one piece around the château on a rise of quaternary gravel, pebbles, sand, silt and clay, with Landes sand at the edges and the Eau Blanche stream draining it. The subsoil has been mapped by resistivity, and the vineyard is farmed in 119 named parcels. Fifty-five hectares are in red, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, 26 years old on average; 45 are in white, 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Sémillon, 30 years old. The estate is certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3. Beside the 2 grands vins it makes 1741 de Carbonnieux, La Croix de Carbonnieux, L’Enclos de Carbonnieux and Château Tour Léognan.

The white made the name. The red 1996, which I tasted in September 2026, was proof that the reds of Pessac-Léognan should never be overlooked: mature, poised, textbook Bordeaux with grey in its hair.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Léognan

Classification

Cru Classé de Graves for red and white, 1953 and 1959

Owners

The Perrin family, since 1956

Direction

Eric, Christine and Philibert Perrin

Vineyard

100 hectares in one piece, 55 in red and 45 in white; 119 named parcels

Soil

A rise of quaternary gravel, pebbles, sand, silt and clay, with Landes sand at the edges Terroir of Pessac-Léognan →

Grapes

Red: Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 40%, Cabernet Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 5%; white: Sauvignon Blanc 65%, Sémillon 35%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3

Wines

Château Carbonnieux (red and white); 1741 de Carbonnieux; La Croix de Carbonnieux; L’Enclos de Carbonnieux; Château Tour Léognan

In history

Vines of the abbey of Sainte-Croix in 1234; whites in the first class of France in 1816