Grand Enclos du Château de Cérons

The château

Grand Enclos was once part of the estate of the Marquis de Calvimont, and it was cut off under the Second Empire, when the national road from Bordeaux to Spain was built through it. The house, in the Directoire style, dates from 1875, and walls 3 meters high close in the vineyard, on pebbles, gravel and sandy deposits between the pine forests and the Garonne; more vines lie on the Podensac plateau. Édouard Féret, co-author of the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first printed it in his Les vins des Graves rouges et blancs of 1908, among the crus bourgeois and first artisans of Cérons, under Elie Lataste, at 12 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of red and 18 of white, and Lataste still had it in 1922. Giorgio Cavanna, born in Rome, who had made his career in industry between Italy and France, bought the estate around 2000 on the advice of Bertrand Léon. Xavier Dauba has made its wines for more than 20 years.

The red Graves is 40 to 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot, fermented in temperature-controlled conical stainless steel tanks with long macerations and aged 12 to 14 months in barrels, 30 to 50% of them new. There is also a white Graves, a sweet Cérons, the Elixir du Grand Enclos in the years that allow it, and Château Lamouroux, from the younger vines.

At a glance

Appellation

Cérons, sweet; Graves, red and white

Commune

Cérons

Classification

No classification

Enologist

Xavier Dauba, for more than 20 years

Soil

Pebbles, gravel and sand, within walls 3 meters high; more vines on the Podensac plateau Terroir of Cérons →

Grapes

Red Graves: Cabernet Sauvignon 40 to 50%, the rest Merlot

Cellar

Conical stainless steel tanks; the red 12 to 14 months in barrel, 30 to 50% new

Wines

Grand Enclos du Château de Cérons, Cérons and red and white Graves; Elixir du Grand Enclos; Château Lamouroux

The house

Directoire style, 1875

Not to be confused with

Château de Cérons

In history

Under Elie Lataste, 12 tonneaux of red and 18 of white, in 1908; the same owner in 1922