Château de Rouillac

The château

Rouillac was a noble estate long before it was a wine: Jean de Martigny, King’s Counsel, left it to Jean-Paul Loret, then president of the parliament of Bordeaux. Its most famous owner came in 1864. Baron Haussmann bought it and made it his favorite retreat from the work site he had made of Paris, and the 19th-century chartreuse with its fine stables dates from his time. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list the Château de Rouillac under the baron in 1868, at 25 to 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and their notice of the neighboring Château de Cestas describes the little château seen across the valley of the Eau-Bourde: about 200 hectares of woods, meadows and a mill, with 2 pieces of vines of no more than 12 hectares giving red Graves of excellent quality. From 1893 it belonged to G. Mazure, of Roubaix, and in 1898 the guide set Rouillac beside Château Seguin as wines of old standing that usually sold at a premium.

Laurent Cisneros first saw the estate in 2009 and has owned it since 2010. His wife Sophie and his 3 daughters, Melanie, Ophelie and Eugenie, have joined him, and horses are back in the stables. The label of the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) carries the wind rose laid out on the château’s forecourt.

Of the 36 hectares, 26 are vines on fine tertiary gravel, in a climate tempered by the Garonne and the ocean. The farming was environmentally minded from the start, with Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) since 2013, and every wine carries it on the label. The red, 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, is picked by hand into crates, sorted on a table, vatted 22 to 25 days in temperature-controlled vats with punching down and pumping over, and aged 12 to 15 months in French oak on its lees. Jean-Christophe Barron is technical director and Sophie Burguet cellar master; Éric Boissenot has consulted since the 2010 vintage, his first in Pessac-Léognan. Beside the Château de Rouillac come L’Orangerie de Rouillac, Le Baron de Rouillac and Le Dada de Rouillac, each red and white.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Canéjan

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Cisneros family, since 2010

Direction

Jean-Christophe Barron, technical director; Sophie Burguet, cellar master

Consultant

Éric Boissenot, since the 2010 vintage

Vineyard

26 hectares of vines on a property of 36

Soil

Fine tertiary gravel Terroir of Pessac-Léognan →

Grapes

Red: Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, since 2013

Cellar

Picked by hand; vatting 22 to 25 days; 12 to 15 months in French oak on the lees

Wines

Château de Rouillac, red and white; L’Orangerie de Rouillac; Le Baron de Rouillac; Le Dada de Rouillac

In history

Bought by Baron Haussmann in 1864; no more than 12 hectares of vines in his time