Château Laffitte Carcasset

The château

The vineyard is first mentioned in 1759, and the Belleyme map of 1767 shows it at Le Carcasset, in the middle of what is now the Saint-Estèphe appellation. Jean Laffitte, a lawyer and the king’s prosecutor in Bordeaux, bought it in 1781 and left it his name. He later went to live in the Antilles to build up his business there, and in his lifetime handed the estate, or at least its running, to his son Joseph. The Alcuet family held it from 1838: Charles Cocks, whose guide to the wines of Bordeaux appeared in French in 1850, lists Carcasset under Martin at 90 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1850, and in 1898 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, first print the name Laffitte-Carcasset, under M. Alcuet, at 30. The Grillets followed in 1898 and the Vitrants in 1918; in 1922 it appears as Château Laffitte-Saint-Estèphe, a cru bourgeois supérieur under Paul Vitrant, about 20 hectares almost all around the château, at 60 tonneaux. The Padiracs held it from 1958. Pierre Rousseau, from the Mayenne, as keen on sailing and flying as on wine, bought it in 2016 and spent 3 years renovating the vat room and cellars and restoring the stone manor house. Hubert de Boüard consults.

The vines grow on gravel rises of small river stones, with traces of ironpan, clay and limestone and sand, over the marine limestone known as the marl of Saint-Estèphe and deep beds of clay that carry the vines through drought. The vineyard was restructured in 2007, green manures are sown every year, and it has been certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) since 2020. It is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, 60%, with Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc; Chardonnay was planted in 2020 for a first white from the 2023 vintage. The grapes are sorted 3 times, in the vineyard, by optical sorter and by hand on a table, and fermented plot by plot in 28 temperature-controlled vats of 80 to 150 hectoliters; the wine ages 12 to 14 months in oak barrels, part of them new, while clay amphorae hold about 5% of the blend. Alongside Château Laffitte Carcasset come Reflet de Laffitte Carcasset and Le Corsaire de Laffitte Carcasset. The classification of February 2025 made it a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, 1 of 14.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Estèphe

Commune

Saint-Estèphe, at Le Carcasset

Classification

Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in 2025, 1 of 14

Owner

Pierre Rousseau, since 2016

Consultant

Hubert de Boüard

Soil

Gravel rises over the marl of Saint-Estèphe and deep clay Terroir of Saint-Estèphe →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 60%, Merlot, Cabernet Franc 5%; Chardonnay since 2020

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, since 2020; green manures

Cellar

Sorted 3 times; 28 vats of 80 to 150 hectoliters; 12 to 14 months in oak; about 5% of the blend in clay amphorae

Wines

Château Laffitte Carcasset; Reflet de Laffitte Carcasset; Le Corsaire de Laffitte Carcasset; a white from the 2023 vintage

In history

On the Belleyme map of 1767; Jean Laffitte from 1781; a cru bourgeois supérieur under Paul Vitrant in 1922