Château des Laurets

The estate

Vines have grown here since the 12th century, but the Château des Laurets was new when Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first listed it at Puisseguin in 1868, under Gailhard: just built, about 1860, with large outbuildings, to plans by Mialhe, an architect of Bordeaux, its octagonal central tower rising over the vineyard. With the lands of Château Malangin it made a domain of 200 hectares in 1 piece, about 100 of them vines, and the wine of Malangin was taken to Laurets and counted with its own: 225 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1874 and 300 from 1893. In 1922, under the comte de La Rochette, the guide put it in the first rank of the bourgeois supérieurs of the Saint-Émilion country.

Baron Benjamin de Rothschild bought and restored it, and it belongs to Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, where Ariane de Rothschild and her daughter Eve carry on the family’s history. The property covers 86 hectares astride the Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion and Montagne-Saint-Émilion appellations, its vines facing south on clay and limestone slopes with outcrops of limestone, certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 since 2019. Château des Laurets, the Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion, comes from 40 hectares planted 80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc; after a cold soak it is fermented in wooden and stainless steel vats and bottled at the château. A parcel selection of 4 hectares is made apart as Château des Laurets Baron. Fabrice Bandiera is technical director.

At a glance

Appellation

Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion; part of the property in Montagne-Saint-Émilion

Commune

Puisseguin

Classification

No classification

Owner

Edmond de Rothschild Heritage

Direction

Fabrice Bandiera, technical director

Vineyard

86 hectares in all; 40 for the Puisseguin-Saint-Émilion

Ground

Clay and limestone slopes facing south, with limestone outcrops

Grapes

Merlot 80%, Cabernet Franc 20%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2019

Cellar

Cold soak; wooden and stainless steel vats; bottled at the château

Wines

Château des Laurets; Château des Laurets Baron, a parcel selection of 4 hectares

In history

Built about 1860 to plans by Mialhe; 200 hectares with Malangin; 300 tonneaux from 1893

Sources: Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, Château des Laurets · Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, Château des Laurets 2019 · Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, Château des Laurets Baron · Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, the heritage · Edmond de Rothschild Heritage, the wines of Château des Laurets