Château Kirwan

The château

The estate was the Domaine de Lassalle until Mark Kirwan, a merchant from the Irish trading port of Galway, enlarged it, gave it his name and made it known abroad. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, listed Kirwan that year among the fourth growths, at 1,200 to 1,400 francs the tonneau (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); 31 years later the brokers put it at the head of the third growths. Camille Godard, a leading political figure in Bordeaux, bought it after the classification. In 1902 Armand Schÿler, of the 5th generation of a Bordeaux merchant family, signed an agreement to buy its future harvests, and in 1926 the family bought the estate outright. The family’s merchant house, Schröder and Schÿler, still sells the wine.

Yann, Sophie and Nathalie Schÿler lead the family today, and Philippe Delfaut has been managing director since 2007, having been technical director at Palmer. The replanting begun in the 1960s by Jean-Henri Schÿler, of the 7th generation, shaped the vineyard of today: 37 hectares in 35 plots on 29 different types of soil, at 10,000 vines a hectare, with vines 30 years old on average, planted 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot and 1% Carmenère, a rare survivor in the Médoc. The winery, redesigned in 2014, works by gravity into 37 tulip-shaped concrete vats, and the wine spends 18 to 21 months in French oak; about 160,000 bottles are made a year. Charmes de Kirwan is the second wine.

Kirwan ages with real grace. The 1996, which I tasted in December 2025, had the classic Margaux signature of a Cabernet year: violets, graphite and a graceful frame that has aged with refinement.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Classification

Troisième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

The Schÿler family, since 1926; Yann, Sophie and Nathalie Schÿler

Direction

Philippe Delfaut, managing director, since 2007

Vineyard

37 hectares in 35 plots; 10,000 vines a hectare; vines 30 years old on average

Soil

29 different types of soil Terroir of Margaux →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 47%, Merlot 34%, Cabernet Franc 10%, Petit Verdot 8%, Carmenère 1%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3, from 2017; ISO 14001, from 2013

Cellar

Gravity; 37 tulip-shaped concrete vats, 2014; 18 to 21 months in French oak

Production

About 160,000 bottles a year

Wines

Château Kirwan; Charmes de Kirwan

In history

A fourth growth for Franck in 1824; top of the third growths in 1855