Château Guitignan

The château

The Lestages have been here a very long time. Notarial deeds of the 17th and 18th centuries in the family archives show the Lestages owning Guitignan then, and the trade books follow them. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed a cru at Guitignan under Lestage in 1868, at 25 to 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and carried the Lestage name at Queytignan, as they spelled it, from 1883 to 1899. In 1922, under Maurice Lestage, they called Château Guitignan, the 1er cru Guitignan, a cru bourgeois supérieur and one of the oldest crus of the Médoc, its wines selling at the price of the bourgeois supérieurs and often above; the family kept a collection of more than 30 vintages going back to 1844, and at Brussels in 1910 the 1904, the 1896 and the 1890 won a gold medal and a Grand Prix diploma.

The Lestage-Vidaller family holds it today, and works with the Grand Listrac cooperative, at Listrac-Médoc. The soil is a layer of Garonne gravel over clay and limestone. The vines, 25 years old on average and planted at 7,000 a hectare, are 60% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. The grapes are picked by hand, made in the traditional Médoc way and aged 12 months in oak barrels. Guitignan is a Cru Bourgeois in the classifications of 2020 and 2025.

At a glance

Appellation

Moulis-en-Médoc

Commune

Moulis-en-Médoc

Classification

Cru Bourgeois, 2020 and 2025

Owners

The Lestage-Vidaller family

Vineyard

Vines 25 years old on average; 7,000 vines a hectare

Soil

Garonne gravel on clay and limestone Terroir of Moulis →

Grapes

Merlot 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 32%, Cabernet Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 3%

Cellar

Picked by hand; 12 months in oak barrels

Wines

Château Guitignan

The house

Cave Grand Listrac, Listrac-Médoc

In history

The Lestage family at Guitignan from the 17th century; gold medal at Brussels in 1910