Domaine Andron

The château

Andron was a family name before it was a wine. The first building of the estate appears on the land register of 1831, as parcel 868, and in 1853 William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, lists Justin Andron at Plaisance, in Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, carry Domaine Andron from 1883 as a cru bourgeois (a Médoc classification) of the commune under L. Simon, who also owned Sociando-Mallet. In 1893 they place it on the old domaine de Plaisance, between Pontoise-Cabarrus and Château Charmail, at about 15 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), sold under the trademark Domaine Andron (Médoc), registered in 1887. By 1922 the owner was Simon-Gorry, and the vineyard had Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec beside its Cabernet.

Today the vineyard is 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot, on gravel and clay and limestone, with vines 35 years old on average; it is certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) and worked without chemical weedkillers. The grapes are fermented plot by plot and variety by variety in open wooden vats, in the Burgundian way, and the wine spends 18 to 24 months in French oak barrels, about 20% of them new each year. Vincent Faure is technical director, Philippe Gouze cellar master and Emilien Delalande enologist. The grand vin (the estate’s first wine) is dressed in white in even vintages and in black in odd ones, and a limited cuvée, Our Confidential Edition, is released without disclosing its vintage or its blend.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne

Classification

No classification

Direction

Vincent Faure, technical director; Philippe Gouze, cellar master

Enologist

Emilien Delalande

Vineyard

Vines 35 years old on average

Soil

Gravel, clay and limestone Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale; no chemical weedkillers

Cellar

Open wooden vats, plot by plot; 18 to 24 months in French oak, about 20% new

Wines

Domaine Andron, white label in even vintages, black in odd; Our Confidential Edition

In history

On the land register in 1831; a cru bourgeois under L. Simon of Sociando-Mallet from 1883; the trademark registered in 1887