Château de Fieuzal

The château

Fieuzal has made wine for more than 400 years and took its present name in 1864 from Lovely Fieuzal, the last of the family that held it. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first printed it in 1868, joined to La Gravière under de Griffon, and gave Alfred de Griffon 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1874. The 1893 went to the table of Pope Leo XIII. By 1908 Féret called it an old property of the La Rochefoucauld family and one of the oldest and best growths of the gravels of Léognan, set on the highest and best exposed rises of the commune, with 15 hectares of vines, 25 tonneaux of red and 5 of white, and wines that fetched the prices of the second growths of the Médoc.

Five families have owned the place, and Brenda and Lochlann Quinn, from Ireland, bought it in 2001; Daragh Quinn is managing director and Stephen Carrier technical director. Fieuzal was classified in 1953 for its red wine, and the list took its present form with the decree of February 16, 1959; the white, which had grown to 15 tonneaux by 1922, is not a classified wine.

The vineyard runs to 75 hectares in 74 plots, 65 red and 10 white, on the gravel of Léognan over sandy clay, with 30 hectares of woods and long runs of hedgerow around it. The red is 45% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, the white 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Sémillon, and the picking is by hand. The estate makes about 9,500 cases of red and 2,000 of white a year; L’Abeille de Fieuzal, in red and in white, is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Léognan

Classification

Cru Classé de Graves for red, 1953 and 1959; Michelin Guide, 1 grape (2026)

Owners

Brenda and Lochlann Quinn, since 2001

Direction

Daragh Quinn, managing director; Stephen Carrier, technical director

Vineyard

75 hectares in 74 plots; 65 red and 10 white

Soil

Gravel over sandy clay, with 30 hectares of woods and hedgerow Terroir of Pessac-Léognan →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 45%, Cabernet Sauvignon 40%, Cabernet Franc 10%, Petit Verdot 5%; white: Sauvignon Blanc 70%, Sémillon 30%

Production

About 9,500 cases of red and 2,000 of white a year

Wines

Château de Fieuzal (red and white); L’Abeille de Fieuzal (red and white)

In history

15 hectares of vines and 25 tonneaux in 1908, at the prices of the second growths of the Médoc