Château Chauvin

The château

Chauvin started as a tenant farm, the métairie de Chauvin, split off from the Corbin fief in 1852 and taken by Jean Fourcaud-Laussac. Victor Ondet bought it in 1891 as a country house and called it the Folie. It came into the books late and small: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, gave Ondet 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) here in their supplement of 1901, and by 1922 Château Chauvin, under Ondet and Boisselet, made 35 and stood among the growths the guide placed between the firsts and the seconds. Henri Ondet enlarged the château to its present size in 1954, and the sisters Marie-France and Béatrice Ondet took over the running of it in 1989.

Chauvin was a Grand Cru Classé in the first Saint-Émilion classification of 1955 and has kept the rank at every revision since, in 1969, 1986, 1996, 2006, 2012 and in the list approved in September 2022, an unbroken run that is rarer on this list than it sounds. In May 2014 Sylvie Cazes bought the estate with her children Julie, Pierre and François Régimbeau. From January 2021 the cellars were rebuilt to a design by the architect Philippe Ducos, with a new vat house, separate barrel cellars and a tasting room. Jérémie Gravier, an agricultural engineer and enologist, is technical director, and Julie Régimbeau has run sales and marketing since 2016.

The vineyard is 15 hectares in a single block around the house, in the northwest of the appellation near Pomerol, on sandy clay with an iron pan over a clay subsoil, drained to carry the water off. It is planted 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and has held Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3, since 2017. The second wine, Folie de Chauvin, made since 2014 from the youngest vines, carries the name Victor Ondet gave the house in 1891.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, in the northwest, near the boundary with Pomerol

Classification

Grand Cru Classé in every list from 1955 to 2022

Owners

Sylvie Cazes and her children Julie, Pierre and François Régimbeau, since May 2014

Direction

Jérémie Gravier, technical director; Julie Régimbeau, sales and marketing, since 2016

Vineyard

15 hectares in a single block around the house

Soil

Sandy clay with an iron pan over clay; drained Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 75%, Cabernet Franc 20%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2017

Cellar

Rebuilt from January 2021 to a design by Philippe Ducos: new vat house, separate barrel cellars, tasting room

Wines

Château Chauvin; Folie de Chauvin, from the youngest vines, since 2014

In history

Ondet at 10 tonneaux in 1901; Ondet and Boisselet at 35 in 1922