Château Destieux

The estate

Destieux sits high at Saint-Hippolyte, with the valley of the Dordogne below. The name is read as a contraction of des yeux, of the eyes, after the villagers who used to climb up here to watch the sun go down. The vineyard is an old one. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed it in 1874 as a cru bourgeois under Duplessis-Fourcaud, at 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and from 1893 to 1908 the Domaine Destieux, under Édouard Jean and then Mademoiselle Jean, was making 30.

The modern story begins in 1971, when Madame Dauriac bought the property. Christian Dauriac, an oenologist and clinical biologist, made his first vintage here in 1976, and the family also holds Château Montlisse in Saint-Émilion and Château La Clémence in Pomerol. Destieux was in no Saint-Émilion classification before 2006, when it was 1 of 6 estates promoted to Grand Cru Classé. Then the ground moved under it: the courts annulled that list in 2008 and brought back the one of 1996, and only a law of 2009 let the estates raised in 2006 keep their rank. The classifications of 2012 and 2022 confirmed it. In 2014 Destieux won the Coupe des Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Émilion for the second year running, on the 2009, 2010 and 2011 vintages.

The 8.12 hectares form 1 unbroken block of clay and limestone, with a thin siliceous vein that barely breaks the surface at the top of the plateau, and the lie of the ground keeps the vines in sun from morning to evening. The planting is 66% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc and 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, a large share of Cabernet Sauvignon for the Right Bank, and yields are held below 35 hectoliters a hectare. The estate is certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) and has used no product classed as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction since 2012.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Hippolyte, high above the Dordogne

Classification

Grand Cru Classé from 2006, kept by the law of 2009; confirmed in 2012 and 2022

Owners

The Dauriac family, since 1971

Direction

Christian Dauriac, oenologist, since 1976

Vineyard

8.12 hectares in 1 block

Ground

Clay and limestone, with a thin siliceous vein at the top of the plateau

Grapes

Merlot 66%, Cabernet Franc 17%, Cabernet Sauvignon 17%

Yield

Below 35 hectoliters a hectare

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale; no carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic products since 2012

Wines

Château Destieux

The other estates

Château Montlisse, Saint-Émilion; Château La Clémence, Pomerol

In history

A cru bourgeois at 10 tonneaux in 1874; 30 tonneaux from 1893 to 1908

Sources: Château Destieux, the château · Vignobles Dauriac, Château Destieux · Vignobles Dauriac, the expertise · Association des Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Émilion, Château Destieux · Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, the Saint-Émilion classification of 2022