Château Gazin Rocquencourt

The estate

Gazin Rocquencourt goes back to the 15th century. The first vines on record date from 1468, when Guillem de Gazen owned the land, and the house from 1660. The name took its time to settle. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list Château Gazen et Barbon at Léognan under Mme P.-A. Letanneur in 1886, at 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and Château Gazin et Barbon, under the same owner and at the same figure, in 1893 and 1898. Édouard Féret’s Les vins des Graves rouges et blancs of 1908 has plain Château Gazin under J. Letanneur, at 30 tonneaux, and in 1922 the guide lists it under him for both red and white.

The Bonnie family, owners of Château Malartic-Lagravière, took the estate over at the end of 2005; it sits among their properties beside Malartic-Lagravière and Bodega DiamAndes, in Argentina, and Jean-Jacques Bonnie and his family live in the old house. The 22 hectares lie on a rise of dry gravel on the left bank of the Eau Blanche: 19.5 of red, 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot, and 2.5 of white, all Sauvignon. The vineyard is worked by hand with little intervention and is certified for sustainable farming and Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms). On average it gives 40,000 bottles of red and 5,000 of white.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Léognan

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Bonnie family, since the end of 2005

Vineyard

22 hectares: 19.5 of red, 2.5 of white

Ground

Dry gravel, on the left bank of the Eau Blanche

Grapes

Red: Cabernet Sauvignon 55%, Merlot 45%. White: Sauvignon 100%

Farming

Sustainable farming and Haute Valeur Environnementale; worked by hand

Production

40,000 bottles of red and 5,000 of white on average

The house

Also Château Malartic-Lagravière, Pessac-Léognan, and Bodega DiamAndes, Mendoza

In history

Vines recorded in 1468, under Guillem de Gazen; the house built in 1660; Château Gazin et Barbon, 20 tonneaux, from 1886

Sources: Syndicat viticole de Pessac-Léognan, Château Gazin-Rocquencourt · Famille Bonnie, the estates