Château Goudichaud

The château

Château Goudichaud was built in 1780 for M. de Melet, a member of the Parlement de Guyenne, by the architect Gabriel, a pupil of Victor Louis, and for decades it was the summer residence of the archbishops of Bordeaux. Its wine was in the trade books early: the 1874 edition of Bordeaux et ses vins, the guide begun by Charles Cocks that became the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, lists vines at Goudichaux, in Saint-Germain-du-Puch, under Montfrangé, a merchant at Branne, with 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of red and 100 of white, and from 1893 the guide prints Château de Goudichaud under Charavel. The estate then lost land, literally: by 1908 G. Gurchy had enlarged his Château du Grand-Puch by buying part of the lands of Goudichaud. The Glotin family bought it in 1930. Henriette Glotin ran it for 40 years, Paul Glotin enlarged it again to restore its original extent, and Yves Glotin runs it today.

The property is 120 hectares in one enclosure bounded by the river and the forest, 60 of them vines, in the Graves de Vayres, an appellation of about 700 hectares approved in 1938. Merlot, 70% of the reds, grows on the clay-limestone plateau, where the gravel runs 1 meter deep, and the Cabernets, 30%, on hillsides of clayey gravel; the whites are 80% Sauvignon Blanc, with Muscadelle and Sémillon.

The cellar is an 18th-century building fitted with coated cement and stainless steel vats. The whites are picked at 5 in the morning, reach the cellar in less than 10 minutes and ferment at 14°C, partly in new barrels. Château Goudichaud red, 65% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, and white, 85% Sauvignon Blanc, are both Graves de Vayres, as are Château Fage and Château Haut Beaumard; Goudichaud Héritage comes from the oldest vines.

At a glance

Appellation

Graves de Vayres

Commune

Saint-Germain-du-Puch; the vines at Vayres and Arveyres

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Glotin family, since 1930

Direction

Yves Glotin

Vineyard

120 hectares in one enclosure, 60 of vines

Soil

Clay-limestone plateau with gravel 1 meter deep; clayey gravel on the hillsides Terroir of Graves de Vayres →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 70%, the Cabernets 30%; white: Sauvignon Blanc 80%, Muscadelle and Sémillon

Cellar

An 18th-century building; coated cement and stainless steel vats; whites at 14°C, partly in new barrels

Wines

Château Goudichaud, red and white; Goudichaud Héritage; Château Fage; Château Haut Beaumard

In history

20 tonneaux of red and 100 of white in 1874; part of its lands bought into Grand-Puch by 1908