Château La Tour de Bessan

The château

The name comes from a tower: a square keep built at Soussans in the 13th century, all that is left of a fortified site that was once the seat of a barony. When Charles Cocks described Soussans in 1850, and Cocks and Édouard Féret again in 1868 in Bordeaux et ses vins, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, it stood roofless on its mound in thick woods; it was restored in 2020. The vineyard is younger than the tower. It first appears in the book in 1893, as La Tour-Bessan under J. Feuillerat, at 150 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), one of 2 vineyards made out of the meadows of Château La Tour-de-Mons. By 1922 it belonged to Pierre-J. Dubos of La Tour-de-Mons, and the notice praised vines on the palus, the alluvial land by the river, planted with varieties of the first choice and making wines sought after in their class.

Lucien Lurton bought the tower and the vineyards around it from the Clauzel family in 1972, and in 1992 his daughter Marie-Laure Lurton took over. The cellars, the barrel cellar and the tasting room are in a building of 1934 that the architect Vincent Defos du Rau renovated, work finished in 1999. Jean-Luc Brégille has been cellar master since 2000, Habib Achenglil manages the vineyard, and Éric Boissenot is the consulting enologist.

The 35.65 hectares spread over 3 communes of the Margaux appellation, Soussans, Arsac and Margaux-Cantenac, on Pyrenean gravel with more or less clay from one block to the next. The vines, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, are 25 years old on average, at 6,660 to 7,760 a hectare, and Petit Verdot joined them in 2012 to widen the range of the blend. The estate has been Terra Vitis since 2003, renewed every year, and holds Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3. Each vat gets the maceration it asks for, 15 to 25 days, and the wine is raised in stainless steel tanks and oak vats of 40 hectoliters. The second wine, Le Page de La Tour de Bessan, is raised mostly in stainless steel. I tasted the Le Page 2015, 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, by the fire pit on a cold night in February 2026: Margaux with clarity and charm, polished tannins, generous and comforting, with enough freshness to keep each glass inviting.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Commune

Soussans, Arsac and Margaux-Cantenac

Classification

No classification

Owner

Marie-Laure Lurton, since 1992; bought by Lucien Lurton in 1972

Direction

Jean-Luc Brégille, cellar master, since 2000; Habib Achenglil, vineyard

Consultant

Éric Boissenot

Vineyard

35.65 hectares; 6,660 to 7,760 vines a hectare; vines 25 years old on average

Soil

Pyrenean gravel with more or less clay Terroir of Margaux →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; Petit Verdot since 2012

Farming

Terra Vitis since 2003; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3

Cellar

Maceration of 15 to 25 days; stainless steel tanks and oak vats of 40 hectoliters

Wines

Château La Tour de Bessan; Le Page de La Tour de Bessan

The tower

A square keep of the 13th century at Soussans, restored in 2020