Château Fonbadet

The château

Pierre de Gères de Loupes, a knight of Malta, bought the cru of Fonbadet at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1855 Armand d’Armailhacq’s La culture des vignes, la vinification et les vins dans le Médoc still lists M. de Gères there, among the bourgeois ordinaires of Pauillac. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list it from 1868 under the widows Clarke and de Chancel, at 75 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1874, and among the crus bourgeois supérieurs from 1893. In 1901, under Bernard Coudert, it had 30 hectares of vines in a single block, rare in the Médoc, with a fine park, on a high rolling plateau of gravel bordering Mouton-d’Armailhacq and facing Pontet-Canet.

Robert Peyronie bought 4 hectares of Fonbadet in 1950, and his son Pierre enlarged it. The family already had Pauillac in its memory: on Pascale Peyronie’s father’s side, Augustin Simon kept the accounts at Lafite Rothschild, and on her mother’s side, Aurélien Agert managed Mouton Rothschild. She has run Fonbadet since 1991 and opened it to visitors, and the Chartreuse de Fonbadet, with 5 suites, a spa and art from her collection, opened in June 2026 after 5 years of renovation and is let as a whole.

The vineyard is in 2 separate pieces. The piece around the house lies next to Château Latour and Château Pichon Comtesse, and there Cabernet Sauvignon rules; the other, in the north of the appellation, beside Château Mouton Rothschild, shares its soil with Merlot. The soils are Garonne gravels, at 14 to 22 meters. The family has practiced agriculture raisonnée, with biological control, for more than 20 years and has replanted hedges. The wine ages 18 months in barrel, 50 to 70% new; the 2nd wine is Harmonie de Fonbadet.

At a glance

Appellation

Pauillac

Commune

Pauillac

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Peyronie family, since 1950

Direction

Pascale Peyronie, since 1991

Vineyard

2 separate plots, one beside Château Latour and Château Pichon Comtesse, the other in the north of the appellation, beside Château Mouton Rothschild

Soil

Garonne gravels (graves garonnaises) Terroir of Pauillac →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot

Farming

Agriculture raisonnée, with biological control

Aging

18 months in barrel, 50 to 70% new

Wines

Château Fonbadet; Harmonie de Fonbadet

The house

The Chartreuse de Fonbadet, 5 suites, open since June 2026 after 5 years of renovation, let as a whole

In history

A cru bourgeois supérieur with 30 hectares of vines in a single block in 1901