Château Haut-Marbuzet

The château

Marbuzet in the 19th century was a scatter of holdings. The old MacCarthy estate had been broken into 8 lots in 1854, and a survey of the crus bourgeois (a Médoc classification) of Saint-Estèphe published by Édouard Féret in 1868 reaches Marbuzet 3 times over, under Bérard, under Plaignard and under Chambert, with MacCarthy in an entry of its own. In 1952 Hervé Duboscq, who had no wine behind him, bought 7 hectares of those pieces en viager, against an annuity paid to the seller for as long as the seller lived. His son Henri Duboscq joined him in 1962 and has run the estate since, with his own sons Hugues and Bruno, and the family spent the rest of the century putting the land back together: 75 hectares on the Marbuzet ridge, between Cos d’Estournel and Montrose.

The soil is Günz gravel on a clay and limestone subsoil carrying iron, planted at 9,000 vines a hectare, with vines 30 years old on average. The grapes are picked by hand, parcel by parcel, left to ripen further than most of Saint-Estèphe waits for, and fermented on the vineyard’s own yeasts; the wine then spends 15 months in barrels that are all new, the signature of the house, and one it has never moved from.

Its classification record is among the crus bourgeois: a Cru Bourgeois in 1932 and one of the 9 Crus Bourgeois Exceptionnels of the classification of 2003, and it is on neither the list of 2020 nor that of 2025. Three other names in the commune belong to the family, and they are not the same thing: MacCarthy is the second wine, its name bought in 1988, while Château Chambert-Marbuzet and Château Tour de Marbuzet are separate estates with their own vineyards and labels, bought in 1962 and 1981. Château Marbuzet and Château La Croix de Marbuzet have nothing to do with the family.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Estèphe

Commune

Saint-Estèphe

Classification

Cru Bourgeois in 1932; Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in 2003; not in the lists of 2020 and 2025; Michelin Guide, 1 grape (2026)

Owners

The Duboscq family, since 1952

Direction

Henri Duboscq, since 1962, with his sons Hugues and Bruno

Vineyard

75 hectares on the Marbuzet ridge, between Cos d’Estournel and Montrose; 9,000 vines a hectare; vines 30 years old on average

Soil

Günz gravel over clay and limestone carrying iron Terroir of Saint-Estèphe →

Cellar

Picked by hand; native yeasts; 15 months in barrels, all new

Wines

Château Haut-Marbuzet; MacCarthy

Not the same estate

Château Chambert-Marbuzet and Château Tour de Marbuzet, also of the family, bought in 1962 and 1981