Château Labégorce

The estate

Labégorce stands on the road of the châteaux, next to Château Margaux and Lascombes: a neoclassical house on a domain of 250 hectares, nearly 70 of them in vines. Its lands go back to the noble house of La Bégorce in 1332, and Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, in 1868 called it 1 of the finest and best placed châteaux of the commune of Margaux. The wine was known before that. In 1855 Armand d’Armailhacq, a Pauillac grower, described Labégorce, then owned by Vastapani, as the first vineyard one sees east of the main road, with 34 hectares and 60 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), placed among the great wines of the 5th rank. Fortuné Beaucourt bought the château and its 68 hectares on August 31, 1865, and Cocks and Féret carried it among the crus bourgeois of Margaux from 1868; by 1922 it belonged to F. Rooryck, a Bordeaux merchant, and then to his widow. The smaller Domaine de La Bégorce-Zédé, at Soussans, was always a separate growth.

The Perrodo family bought Labégorce in 1989 and restored the buildings and the vineyard, and in 2006 added Château Marquis d’Alesme, a 3rd growth of Margaux. Nathalie Perrodo is the owner and Marjolaine Maurice de Coninck the managing director. The vines are 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, on ground that is 70% sandy gravel and 30% sandy silt. The wine ages 12 to 14 months in barrel, 40% to 50% new, and the estate makes 120,000 to 140,000 bottles a year. Zédé de Labégorce is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Commune

Margaux

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Perrodo family, since 1989; Nathalie Perrodo

Direction

Marjolaine Maurice de Coninck, managing director

Vineyard

Nearly 70 hectares, on a domain of 250

Ground

70% sandy gravel, 30% sandy silt

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 45%, Cabernet Franc 3%, Petit Verdot 2%

Cellar

12 to 14 months in barrel, 40% to 50% new

Production

120,000 to 140,000 bottles a year

Wines

Château Labégorce; Zédé de Labégorce

The house

Also Château Marquis d’Alesme, 3rd growth of Margaux, since 2006

In history

Under Vastapani, 34 hectares and 60 tonneaux, in 1855

Sources: Château Labégorce · Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Château Labégorce