Château de Cruzeau

The château

Cruzeau traces its origins to the 17th century and to Jacques de Cruzeau. In 1841 the review Le Producteur raised it to the rank of a first growth, and the present château was built in 1912. Its modern life began by accident. In 1973, the day after a small and very local tornado had flattened a plot of young pines, André Lurton came upon the property and saw the uprooted trees studded with pebbles, and he bought it at once. From 1975 his teams cleared, restored, planted and replanted, and in 2001 they built an aging cellar for 2,000 barrels.

The estate lies on the edge of Martillac and Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans and covers nearly 60 hectares of gravel rises, deep gravel for red and white alike: 42 hectares of red, 54% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmenère, and 12.5 of white, all Sauvignon Blanc. The family’s estates have held ISO 14001 since 2010 and Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 since 2017. The red of 2022 was picked by machine, fermented in temperature-controlled steel tanks and aged 12 months in barrel, 30% to 40% new, racked every 3 months; the white of 2023 spent 10 months on its full lees in barrel, 35% new, with stirring. The house also makes Château de Quantin, red and white, and Tracé Carménère, a micro-cuvée of Cruzeau’s Carmenère, about 800 bottles a year.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans

Classification

No classification

Owners

The André Lurton family, since 1973

Vineyard

Nearly 60 hectares: 42 red, 12.5 white

Soil

Deep gravel Terroir of Pessac-Léognan →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 54%, Cabernet Sauvignon 41%, Petit Verdot 4%, Carmenère 1%. White: Sauvignon Blanc 100%

Farming

ISO 14001 since 2010; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2017

Cellar

Aging cellar for 2,000 barrels, built in 2001; red 12 months in barrel, 30% to 40% new

Wines

Château de Cruzeau, red and white; Château de Quantin; Tracé Carménère

The house

Also Château de Rochemorin, Château La Louvière and Château Couhins-Lurton, Pessac-Léognan