Château Croizet-Bages

The château

The name goes back to the Croizet brothers in the 17th century. The Calvé family, Bordeaux merchants, bought the property in 1853, 2 years before the classification. Paul Quié, a Paris wine merchant, bought it in 1942, when the vineyard ran to 55 hectares; by his death in 1968 it had shrunk to 30. His son Jean-Michel Quié took over and began to rebuild after the harvest of 1969, and in 2000 his children Anne-Françoise and Jean-Philippe Quié joined the management, where they remain. The estate belongs to Domaines Quié, with Château Rauzan-Gassies in Margaux.

There is no château: the buildings stand in Pauillac itself, and the vines on the Plateau de Bages, on deep Garonne gravel and gravelly sand, planted at 8,500 vines a hectare, with vines 35 years old on average. The wine ferments in stainless steel vats of 12 to 120 hectoliters, at 26 to 28 degrees with 2 or 3 pump-overs a day, goes through malolactic in barrel and in steel, and spends 12 months in French oak, half of it new; yields average 45 hectoliters a hectare. A second phase of renovation, with a new vat house and new technical buildings, is due to be finished in 2026. Alias is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Pauillac

Commune

Pauillac, the Plateau de Bages

Classification

Cinquième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

The Quié family, since 1942

Direction

Anne-Françoise and Jean-Philippe Quié, since 2000

Vineyard

8,500 vines a hectare; vines 35 years old on average; about 45 hectoliters a hectare

Soil

Deep Garonne gravel and gravelly sand Terroir of Pauillac →

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3

Cellar

Stainless steel vats of 12 to 120 hectoliters; 12 months in French oak, half new; a new vat house due in 2026

Wines

Château Croizet-Bages; Alias