Château

Château de Villambis

shah-TOH duh vee-lahn-BEE
How to read this

Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “ahn” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The recording is the reference.

An 18th-century château at Cissac, listed by the trade since 1850, that has been a place of work for about 100 people with disabilities since the Adapei de la Gironde took it on in 1979.

Appellation
Haut-Médoc
Classification
Cru Bourgeois
On Instagram
@chateau_de_villambis

The château

Villambis stands at Cissac, in the heart of the Médoc, about 10 kilometers from Pauillac, around a château built in the 18th century. Its wine was known early. Charles Cocks, the Englishman whose Bordeaux, ses environs et ses vins became, with Édouard Féret, the guide of the Bordeaux trade, lists it under Balguerie fils in 1850, at 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and in 1855 Armand d’Armailhacq, in his book on the vineyards of the Médoc, counts it, under M. Balguerie, among the bourgeois ordinaires of the commune. The Baour family held it from 1868 and made 80 tonneaux by 1893; Mme Ed. Cruse had it in 1898 and the comte de Wrangel in 1922. It was first recognized as a Cru Bourgeois in 1932.

In 1979 the Adapei de la Gironde, an association of parents founded in 1958, took over the estate to set up an ESAT, a sheltered workplace (établissement et service d’aide par le travail), which supports about 100 workers with disabilities, and in 1982 the vineyard was rebuilt. Of its 18 hectares, 15 are in production, on Pyrenean gravel and sand over fissured limestone and clay, under Terra Vitis since 2020. The wine is made by the Bordeaux book: picking by hand and by machine, strict sorting, full destemming, temperature control, work by parcel, and 12 to 14 months in oak barrels, one third of them new. Besides Château de Villambis the estate sells Aôst de Villambis, Villa Rosé and Vill’Aôst, and it was a Cru Bourgeois in the classifications of 2020 and 2025.

At a glance

Appellation
Haut-Médoc
Commune
Cissac-Médoc
Classification
Cru Bourgeois, 2020 and 2025; first a Cru Bourgeois in 1932
Owner
Adapei de la Gironde, since 1979
Vineyard
18 hectares, 15 in production; rebuilt in 1982
Soil
Pyrenean gravel and sand over fissured limestone and clay Terroir of Haut-Médoc →
Farming
Terra Vitis, since 2020
Cellar
Picked by hand and by machine; fully destemmed; 12 to 14 months in oak barrels, one third new
Wines
Château de Villambis; Aôst de Villambis; Villa Rosé; Vill’Aôst
The house
An ESAT for about 100 workers with disabilities, since 1979
In history
Balguerie fils, 30 tonneaux, in 1850; the Baour family from 1868; the comte de Wrangel in 1922

Sources

Institutions
Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc: Château de Villambis, the classification of 2025, the classification of 2020
Its own publications
Château de Villambis: the estate, our values; Adapei de la Gironde, Château de Villambis

Revised October 13, 2026. How I choose sources

The record

Château de Villambis is a Cru Bourgeois, in the Haut-Médoc appellation.

The 1855 Classification was published on April 18, 1855, drawn up by the brokers of the Bordeaux exchange for the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Source: Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855

Private

By invitation only.

On from here

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