Château Coutet

The château

Coutet is the Gascon word for knife. Charles le Guérin was making wine here by 1643. Gabriel-Barthélemy-Romain de Filhot bought the estate in 1788 and went to the guillotine 6 years later; the property was seized and came in time to the Lur Saluces family of Yquem, which is why Coutet’s long cellar served for a while as a stable for Yquem’s horses. Thomas Jefferson, buying wine in Bordeaux in the 1780s, judged Coutet the best of Barsac, and it was big as well as good. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, gives the Marquis de Lur Saluces 100 to 120 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) here in 1845, and Charles Cocks, in Bordeaux, ses environs et ses vins of 1850, prints 110, the largest crop in Barsac.

The 20th century brought new hands. Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins had become the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, record 60 tonneaux in 1922 under the Société Immobilière des Grands Crus de France, and Henri-Louis Guy bought the estate in the 1920s. The Baly family, Marcel and his sons Philippe and Dominique, have owned it since 1977, and Baron Philippe de Rothschild has distributed the wine since 1994. In 2023 the family bought the last parcels it needed to bring the vineyard back to its size of 1855. Coutet has needed its commune printed beside it for 2 centuries: Clarets and Sauternes, a guide published in 1920, already warned readers of a second Château Coutet, a red of Saint-Émilion.

The vineyard is 48 parcels over 8 kinds of sand, red clay and limestone, at 7,500 vines a hectare, the vines 60 years old on average, planted 75% Sémillon, 23% Sauvignon Blanc and 2% Muscadelle. The grapes are picked by hand in about 6 passes and the wine spends 18 months in oak. La Chartreuse de Coutet has been the second wine since 1977, and Opalie the dry white since the 2010 vintage.

Cuvée Madame is Coutet at full stretch: Sémillon alone from the 2 oldest parcels, picked berry by berry at about 22 degrees of potential alcohol, aged 3 years in new oak and bottled apart. The barrels are kept beside the rest of the crop while they mature, and if they fall short they go back into the grand vin (the estate’s first wine). So it is made only in some years, and the bottles then rest at the château for about 10 years before release.

At a glance

Appellation

Barsac; the wines may also be sold as Sauternes

Commune

Barsac

Classification

Premier Cru Classé 1855; Michelin Guide, 1 grape (2026)

Owners

The Baly family, since 1977

Vineyard

48 parcels over 8 soils; 7,500 vines a hectare; vines 60 years old on average

Soil

Sand, red clay and limestone Terroir of Barsac →

Grapes

Sémillon 75%, Sauvignon Blanc 23%, Muscadelle 2%

Cellar

Picked by hand in about 6 passes; 18 months in oak

Wines

Château Coutet; La Chartreuse de Coutet, since 1977; Opalie, dry, since the 2010 vintage; Cuvée Madame in chosen years

The cellar

110 meters long; once a stable for the horses of Château d’Yquem

Distribution

Baron Philippe de Rothschild, since 1994

In history

100 to 120 tonneaux under Lur Saluces in 1845; 110 in 1850, the largest crop in Barsac