Château de la Grave

The château

Château de la Grave was built between 1860 and 1868 by Sully Rambaud, a man of the Bordeaux wine trade, in the neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance taste, with a tower, turrets and a steep roof; until then the hamlet of La Grave had been a master’s house and its farm buildings. His wine found its place quickly. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list La Grave under Rambaud from 1868, and from 1874 among the first crus bourgeois of Bourg, at 80 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). By 1898 his daughter, Mme Wenck, owned it and made 120 tonneaux on one of the hills that look over Bourg, the Dordogne and the Gironde. Constant Bassereau bought it from her in 1910; in 1922 it was 25 hectares in a single block on the highest part of Bourg, at Haute Libarde, making about 100 tonneaux of red and white. The Bassereaus have now been here for 5 generations, and Philippe, Valérie and Lou Bassereau run the estate today.

The 45 hectares, 38 of red and rosé and 7 of white, lie on limestone up to 20 meters thick under a heavy mantle of clay, with red gravel on the heights. The reds are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, the whites Sémillon, Colombard and Chenin. The vineyard is farmed organically and biodynamically, with sheep and horses grazing between the vines and horn manure made on the estate; some cuvées are certified organic by Ecocert and others are in conversion. The grapes macerate 2 to 3 weeks in temperature-controlled concrete and steel vats; the reds age mainly in Bordeaux barrels and foudres of 5,000 liters, the whites and the rosé ferment in barrel or in Dolia clay jars, and everything is bottled at the château. The 2020 Classic red is 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Malbec, and Nectar, first made in 1995, is pure Merlot from old vines. The family also makes a sparkling wine, Bulles de Campagne, and the house takes guests.

At a glance

Appellation

Côtes de Bourg

Commune

Bourg

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Bassereau family, since 1910

Vineyard

45 hectares: 38 of red and rosé, 7 of white

Soil

Clay over limestone up to 20 meters thick; red gravel on the heights Terroir of Côtes de Bourg →

Grapes

Red: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec. White: Sémillon, Colombard, Chenin

Farming

Organic and biodynamic; some cuvées certified by Ecocert, others in conversion

Cellar

Concrete and steel vats; barrels, foudres and clay jars; bottled at the château

Wines

Classic; Caractère; Nectar; Rouge Terre; Grains fins; Dolia; Le Goût des Choses range; Villa Ida; Bulles de Campagne

In history

A first cru bourgeois of Bourg from 1874; 120 tonneaux in 1898