Château Filhot

The estate

Romain de Filhot founded the estate in 1709, and the name was known before any ranking: André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant whose Topographie de tous les vignobles connus of 1816 surveyed the vineyards of the world, counted the clos Fillot among the 3 most esteemed crus of Sauterne, with the clos Duroy and Ycum-Salus. The estate passed to the Lur Saluces through the marriage of Joséphine de Filhot, and Romain-Bertrand de Lur Saluces enlarged the vineyard and rebuilt the house in the English manner in 1840, with a park laid out by a landscape gardener named Fisher in 1845. Les grands crus bordelais, a survey of the great growths published in 1866, found the vines farmed, planted and picked just as at Yquem, and Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, gave the Lur Saluces heirs 70 to 90 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1868 and 90 in 1893.

The wine went back to being sold as Château Filhot in 1901. The Comtesse Durieu de Lacarelle, sister of the Marquis de Lur Saluces, bought it in 1935. Comte Henri de Vaucelles took over the running of it in 1974, and his son, Comte Gabriel de Vaucelles, holds it today.

The 62 hectares of vines are planted at 6,000 to the hectare, 37 years old on average, to Sémillon with a high share of Sauvignon and some Muscadelle. The grapes are picked by hand in successive passes, and a hard year shows: in 2023 the yield fell to 5 hectoliters a hectare. The estate holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3. Pineau du Rey is the second wine, with a dry white beside it, and a 16th century dovecot stands in the park.

At a glance

Appellation

Sauternes

Commune

Sauternes

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855

Owner

Comte Gabriel de Vaucelles; the family in charge since 1974

Vineyard

62 hectares of vines inside an estate of about 350; 6,000 vines a hectare; vines 37 years old on average

Grapes

Sémillon, with a high share of Sauvignon and some Muscadelle

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3

Wines

Château Filhot; Pineau du Rey; a dry white

The house

Rebuilt in the English manner in 1840; park laid out in 1845; a 16th century dovecot

In history

Among the 3 most esteemed crus of Sauterne in 1816, as the clos Fillot

Sources: Bordeaux Graves Sauternes, Château Filhot · INAO, cahier des charges Sauternes · Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855, the classified growths