Château Chasse-Spleen

The château

The wine goes back to 1720, when a Mr Gressier planted a gravel knoll above the marshes of Moulis. In 1820 the property was divided: Lucrèce, who inherited this vineyard, married a Castaing of Poujeaux. The name Chasse-Spleen dates from 1863, and the books followed the Castaings. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, lists Jean-Jacques Castaing’s holding at Grand-Poujeaux in 1853, at 30 to 40 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first print the name Chasse-Spleen under him in 1868, at 50 to 70 tonneaux, and from 1874 carry it among the crus bourgeois supérieurs of Moulis, at 100 tonneaux in 1883 under his widow. The wine won silver medals at the Paris exhibitions of 1867 and 1878.

The Segnitz family bought Chasse-Spleen in 1912, and the First World War took it from them: it was confiscated, and in 1922 the guide printed it at the head of the crus bourgeois supérieurs of Moulis with no owner at all, only the words “sous séquestre”, under sequestration. Prosper Lahary owned it from 1922. Jacques Merlaut bought it in 1976, and his granddaughter Céline Villars has run it since 2000, with her husband, Jean-Pierre Foubet, as director. In 2023 the vineyards of Château Brillette joined its own: 30 hectares of fine gravel in production, and the gravel rise of Moulis that Chasse-Spleen had lacked.

In 2022 the estate counted 130 hectares of vines, 125 of red at 9,100 vines a hectare and 5 of white at 6,500, on soils 80% gravel: Garonne gravels over limestone with fossil starfish. The vines are 35 years old on average, the blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, and the wine spends 18 months in barrels, 40% of them new. The second wine, L’Oratoire de Chasse-Spleen, dates from 1979; the Blanc de Chasse-Spleen, 65% Sémillon and 35% Sauvignon Blanc, has been sold as a Bordeaux since 1995; the Héritage de Chasse-Spleen, a Haut-Médoc, took that name in 2000. Gressier Grand Poujeaux, a Moulis whose history goes back to 1700, now belongs to Chasse-Spleen too, and the château keeps an art center and an art collection.

At a glance

Appellation

Moulis

Commune

Moulis-en-Médoc

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Merlaut family, since 1976

Direction

Céline Villars, since 2000; Jean-Pierre Foubet, director

Vineyard

130 hectares of vines in 2022, 125 red and 5 white; 30 hectares of Brillette added in 2023

Soil

Gravel, 80%, over limestone with fossil starfish Terroir of Moulis →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 65%, Merlot 30%, Petit Verdot 5%

Cellar

18 months in barrel, 40% new

Wines

Château Chasse-Spleen; L’Oratoire de Chasse-Spleen; Blanc de Chasse-Spleen, Bordeaux; Héritage de Chasse-Spleen, Haut-Médoc; Gressier Grand Poujeaux, Moulis

In history

A cru bourgeois supérieur from 1874; silver medals at Paris, 1867 and 1878; under sequestration in 1922