Château Dillon

The château

The house was first called Château Terrefort, after the old seigneurial estate on which it was built, probably at the start of the 17th century. Robert Dillon, an Irishman, had himself recognized as a French subject by Louis XV and 1 month later, on July 29, 1754, bought it for 150,000 livres, an enormous sum for the time. François Seignouret, who owned it from October 13, 1829, was a merchant at New Orleans: he created the brand Château Dillon, had the cellars built in 1840 with their 3 traditional Médoc gables, and for many years shipped the wine to the United States, where it was much liked, rather than selling it to the Bordeaux trade. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed it among the crus bourgeois (a Médoc classification) of Blanquefort from 1868, under the widow Seignouret.

The school of agriculture, viticulture and horticulture of Blanquefort opened in 1923 on land it rented, and the Ministry of Agriculture bought the estate in 1956. Dillon is now the teaching vineyard of the agricultural lycée of Blanquefort, run by the public establishment of Bordeaux-Gironde, with Laurent Chastanet as director, Morgane Monhurel as cellar master and Sébastien Valette as vineyard manager.

The estate covers 180 hectares, 70 of them forest and 33 of vines on clay and limestone: 29 of red, planted 40% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 11% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec and 1% Carmenère, and 4 of white, led by Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, with new resistant varieties. It holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 and the AREA qualification. The grand vin (the estate’s first wine) ages 1 year in oak barrels, 30% of them new in 2021; Nuance de Dillon is a second Haut-Médoc and Laubarède a Bordeaux. Château Dillon was a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur in the classification of 2020 and again in 2025.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Blanquefort

Classification

Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, 2020 and 2025

Owner

The State, since 1956; the agricultural lycée of Blanquefort

Direction

Laurent Chastanet, director; Morgane Monhurel, cellar master; Sébastien Valette, vineyard manager

Vineyard

33 hectares, 29 red and 4 white, on an estate of 180

Soil

Clay and limestone Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 40%, Cabernet Sauvignon 26%, Cabernet Franc 15%, Petit Verdot 11%, Malbec 7%, Carmenère 1%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; AREA

Cellar

1 year in oak barrels

Wines

Château Dillon; Nuance de Dillon; Laubarède, Bordeaux

In history

Bought by Robert Dillon for 150,000 livres in 1754; its wine long shipped to the United States

Not to be confused with

Domaine Clarence Dillon, the owner of Haut-Brion