Château Grand-Puy Ducasse

The château

Arnaud Ducasse bought a house on the riverbank at Pauillac in 1675, and the estate has stood in the town ever since, on the quayside facing the Gironde rather than out among its vines. The line passed to the Duroy de Suduiraut family with the marriage of Paméla Ducasse in 1822 and ended with the Baronne Duroy de Suduiraut in 1970: nearly 3 centuries in the same family. The négociant (a merchant who buys from the châteaux and sells on) house Mestrezat-Preller bought the property in 1971 and held it until 2004, and CA Grands Crus, the wine arm of Crédit Agricole, took it in 2005 and began a restructuring that has not stopped since.

The vineyard is not one block but a set of sectors, each with its own soil: gravel slopes on marly limestone to the north, gravelly sand over clay in the center, sandy gravel on clay to the southeast, sandy soils on clay and gravel at Artigues to the west, and podzolised soils on clay to the southwest. The vines average 25 years, are trained in double Guyot and are planted 59% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. Anne Le Naour runs it: she joined CA Grands Crus as technical director in 2010, became deputy general manager in 2016 and took the general management in 2019.

The change in the vineyard came step by step: all the soil worked mechanically from 1996, mating disruption against the vine moths from 2000, the environmental management system of the Bordeaux wine trade from 2012, the first organic trials in 2014, ISO 14001 and Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 from the 2016 vintage, and more than half the vineyard under organic trial by 2023. Then the cellar. The Renaissance vat house, 4,704 square meters by Atelier Mazières with BPM Architectes, holds 46 high precision stainless vats suspended in the vat room and 7 concrete vats for aging and blending; its first harvest came in on September 12, 2023, and it was inaugurated on July 4, 2024. Prélude à Grand-Puy Ducasse is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Pauillac

Commune

Pauillac, on the quayside facing the Gironde

Classification

Cinquième Cru Classé 1855

Owner

CA Grands Crus, of Crédit Agricole, since 2005; Mestrezat-Preller, 1971 to 2004; the Ducasse and Duroy de Suduiraut families, 1675 to 1970

Direction

Anne Le Naour, general manager since 2019, technical director from 2010

Vineyard

In sectors; vines 25 years old on average; double Guyot

Soil

Gravel on marly limestone, gravelly sand on clay, sandy gravel on clay, sandy soils at Artigues, podzolised soils on clay Terroir of Pauillac →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 59%, Merlot 36%, Petit Verdot 5%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, and ISO 14001, both from 2016; organic trials from 2014, over half the vineyard by 2023

Cellar

The Renaissance vat house: 46 suspended stainless vats and 7 concrete vats, 4,704 square meters; first harvest September 12, 2023, inaugurated July 4, 2024

Wines

Château Grand-Puy Ducasse; Prélude à Grand-Puy Ducasse