Château Haut-Bergey

The estate

Haut-Bergey began in the 15th century, when the lords of La Louvière and Olivier joined lands into a new fief, the mayne de Ponteil. Royal counselors and Bordeaux merchants held it after them, and the present manor went up in the middle of the 19th century. The name came with a purchase, part of the neighboring Bergey estate, where from 1874 the books record only a small growth under the Ferrié-Destang family. Château Haut-Bergey itself first appears in 1899, in the errata of the English edition of Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, under Vergne and his sons, at 12 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); Édouard Féret’s Les vins des Graves rouges et blancs of 1908 gives 15. Vines came back to the property only in 1957.

Sylviane Garcin bought it in 1991. She rebuilt the cellars, stopped herbicides that same year and enlarged the vineyard over about 20 years, with Michel Rolland advising until the middle of the 2000s; in 1996 she added the neighboring Château Branon, worked by the same team. Paul Garcin joined in 2007 and has run the estate since 2014. He took the vineyard to organic farming in 2015 and to biodynamics from the 2016 vintage, across the whole estate, with AB and Demeter certification in 2018 and Biodyvin in 2019.

The vines lie in 6 blocks on gravel rises shaped by the old bed of the Eau Blanche, 20 years old on average, with some parcels of 60. The red is 43% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec; the white, 82% Sauvignon Blanc and 18% Sémillon. The cellar works parcel by parcel and raises the wines in large barrels chosen across France, and François Prouteau has been cellar master since 2012.

At a glance

Appellation

Pessac-Léognan

Commune

Léognan

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Garcin family, since 1991

Direction

Paul Garcin, since 2014; François Prouteau, cellar master, since 2012

Vineyard

6 blocks; vines 20 years old on average, some of 60

Ground

Gravel rises of the old bed of the Eau Blanche

Grapes

Red: Merlot 43%, Cabernet Sauvignon 43%, Cabernet Franc 8%, Petit Verdot 5%, Malbec 1%. White: Sauvignon Blanc 82%, Sémillon 18%

Farming

Organic and biodynamic: AB and Demeter, 2018; Biodyvin, 2019

Cellar

Parcel by parcel; large barrels

The house

Also Château Branon, Pessac-Léognan, since 1996

In history

Château Haut-Bergey under Vergne and his sons from 1899, at 12 tonneaux

Sources: Château Haut-Bergey, the history · Château Haut-Bergey, identities · Château Haut-Bergey, convictions