Château La Croix du Casse

The château

La Croix du Casse lies at Catusseau, in the south of Pomerol on the edge of Libourne, and it is drawn on the 18th century maps of Pierre de Belleyme, engineer and geographer to Louis XV; its vines were planted in 1775. The label carries a cross with a scallop shell, the badge of the pilgrims to Santiago, taken from the boundary stones of the old Commanderie estate. In 1956 Georges Audy, a Pomerol merchant and the owner of Château Clinet, bought it and replanted the parcels the frost had killed. His son-in-law Jean-Michel Arcaute later lifted the wine, with Michel Rolland’s help, until Arcaute’s death in 2001. The Groupe des Assurances Nationales sold it in 2005 to Philippe Castéja and his sister Chantal Preben Hansen, who reworked the soils and the cellar and created a second wine.

The vineyard is 9.5 hectares on a terrace of old gravel and sand over iron pan, planted 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, 35 years old on average, and certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3. Since 2011 the estate has shared a program of biological pest control with 10 other Pomerol properties and the national agricultural research institute, and it hangs mating-disruption diffusers instead of spraying for moths. Picking starts at the end of September or the beginning of October; the wine ferments and macerates for about 1 month, then spends 18 months in French oak with 50% of the barrels replaced each year, fined with egg white and racked every 3 months. The team is the one that makes Trottevieille: Christophe Dussutour in the vines since 1999, Valério Mortari in the cellar since 2018, and Thomas Duclos, Valérie Lavigne and Axel Marchal as consulting enologists. Les Chemins de la Croix du Casse is the second wine.

The 2018, which I shared with friends and wrote about in July 2025, was a great success at the table and went beyond what I expected, with the perfect balance: complex yet approachable, intense yet elegant.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Pomerol, at Catusseau, on the edge of Libourne

Classification

No classification

Owners

Philippe Castéja and Chantal Preben Hansen, since 2005

Direction

Christophe Dussutour, vineyard, since 1999; Valério Mortari, cellar, since 2018

Consultants

Thomas Duclos, Valérie Lavigne, Axel Marchal

Vineyard

9.5 hectares; first planted in 1775; vines 35 years old on average

Soil

Old gravel and sand over iron pan Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 90%, Cabernet Franc 10%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; mating disruption instead of insecticide

Cellar

About 1 month in vat; 18 months in French oak, 50% new; egg white fining

Wines

Château La Croix du Casse; Les Chemins de la Croix du Casse