Château La Couspaude

The château

La Couspaude stands 400 meters northeast of the monolithic church, 75 to 85 meters up, and takes its name from la Croix Paute, the wayside cross where pilgrims bound for Compostela turned off the road; the cross still stands at the gate. The land has been under vine for at least 300 years. The wine won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, and Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed it a first growth of Saint-Émilion in 1868 and kept it there in 1889. By 1898 their guide was describing the place much as it is now: about 7 hectares closed by walls, on clay and limestone, and a wine among the best of the Saint-Émilionnais. Alphonse Této owned it then, from 1893, and made 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1897.

The Robin family bought La Couspaude in 1908. André Robin inherited it in 1919 and his daughter Edith in 1941; she married Étienne Aubert, and in 1970 their 3 sons, Alain, Daniel and Jean-Claude Aubert, took over the running of it. Under the family the estate went through every turn of the official lists: Grand Cru Classé in 1955 and 1969, dropped in 1986, back in 1996, and held at every revision since, in 2006, 2012 and 2022. That long family line ended on February 9, 2026, when Pierre-Henri and Véronique Flurin bought the estate; Vignobles K, under Jean-Christophe Meyrou, runs it day to day.

The vineyard is 7.01 hectares in one walled block, 40 to 80 centimeters of clay and limestone over hard limestone, planted 75% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, with vines 50 years old on average and hedgerows and nest boxes kept among them. The house is an 18th century chartreuse, the long low manor house of the Bordelais, around a courtyard of 900 square meters: 1 wing receives the wine trade, the other holds the winery, and galleries run through the limestone underneath. The wine ferments in small temperature-controlled stainless steel vats and spends 18 to 20 months in French oak. There is one wine, Château La Couspaude, and no second label.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, 400 meters northeast of the monolithic church, at 75 to 85 meters

Classification

Grand Cru Classé, 1955 and 1969; out in 1986; back in 1996 and held in 2006, 2012 and 2022

Owners

Pierre-Henri and Véronique Flurin, since February 9, 2026

Operator

Vignobles K, under Jean-Christophe Meyrou

Vineyard

7.01 hectares in one walled block; vines 50 years old on average

Soil

Clay and limestone, 40 to 80 centimeters deep, over hard limestone Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 75%, Cabernet Franc 20%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3; hedgerows and nest boxes

Cellar

Small temperature-controlled stainless steel vats; 18 to 20 months in French oak

Wines

Château La Couspaude, and no second wine

The house

An 18th century chartreuse around a courtyard of 900 square meters, over galleries cut into the limestone

In history

Gold medal in Paris, 1867; a first growth of Saint-Émilion in 1868