Château de Cartujac

The estate

The Saintouts come from Cartujac, at Saint-Laurent-Médoc. The oldest notarial act the family holds places them there in 1640, and they have kept this land for at least 12 generations; at the end of the 18th century they were raising sheep here, at the edge of the Grande Lande. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list Eug. Saintout at the village of Cartujac among the crus artisans et crus paysans in 1898, at 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and H. Saintout in 1922. In 1925 the marriage of Pierre “Roger” Saintout and Madeleine Blancan joined Château La Bridane, in Saint-Julien, to Château de Cartujac.

Bruno Saintout has enlarged the estate step by step since 1984. A member of the Vignerons Indépendants, he also makes Château La Bridane and Château du Périer, a Médoc, and Pierre Saintout, an agronomist and oenologist, joined the family business in 2022. Cartujac has 10 hectares of Garonne gravel and of clay and limestone, at 6,500 vines a hectare, with vines 40 years old, planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot and certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms). The crop is picked by machine, made in stainless steel and cement vats and aged in vats and barrels, with Antoine Médeville as consulting oenologist; the 2020 is 47% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Petit Verdot, an unusually large share of Petit Verdot. The estate makes 25,000 bottles, the second wine is Moulin de La Bridane, and Cartujac was a Cru Bourgeois in the classifications of 2020 and 2025.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Saint-Laurent-Médoc

Classification

Cru Bourgeois, 2020 and 2025

Owners

The Saintout family; Bruno Saintout, since 1984

Oenologist

Antoine Médeville

Vineyard

10 hectares; 6,500 vines a hectare; vines 40 years old

Ground

Garonne gravel; clay and limestone

Grapes

The 2020: Merlot 47%, Cabernet Sauvignon 27%, Petit Verdot 26%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale

Cellar

Picked by machine; stainless steel and cement vats; aged in vats and barrels

Production

25,000 bottles

Wines

Château de Cartujac; Moulin de La Bridane

The house

Also Château La Bridane, Saint-Julien, and Château du Périer, Médoc

In history

The family at Cartujac by 1640; Eug. Saintout at Cartujac in 1898; La Bridane and Cartujac joined by marriage in 1925

Sources: Vignobles Saintout, the estate · Vignobles Saintout, our wines · Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, Domaine de Cartujac · Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, the classification of 2025 · Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc, the classification of 2020