Château Laroze

The château

The Gurchys were rope-makers in Libourne in 1540 and winegrowers at Mazerat, on the sandy soil below Saint-Émilion, from 1610. In 1882 Pétronille Aimé Nelly Gurchy, born Chollet, joined 3 neighboring vineyards into one and began building the château, a house in the Napoleon III style set in 2 hectares of trees. The trade took note fast. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed Château-Laroze-Gurchy, formerly Château-Camus, at 35 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1893; Féret’s survey of Libourne in 1897 set it on the edge of the first growths, in sandy soil that had kept the phylloxera off, with a silver medal of 1878 for its iron-rich subsoil; and by 1908 it made 100 tonneaux and had a gold medal of 1904. Andrée Gurchy held the property through the depression of the 1930s.

Guy Meslin, of the same family, looks after Laroze today, and the family’s own line is that Laroze does not belong to them; they belong to Laroze. It was a Grand Cru Classé in the first list of 1955, and the list of 2022 confirmed it. The soil is plowed, with no weedkiller and no chemical fertilizer; Guy Meslin worked this way 30 years before it was fashionable, and has chosen not to certify the estate organic.

The vines are 27 hectares in one block at the foot of the northwest slope, 1.5 kilometers from the village, on siliceous and clayey soil that is warmer than the plateau, which suits the Cabernets, and the planting follows: 60% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Franc, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec. Picking is by hand, and each variety, each parcel and each grade of fruit goes into its own tank. La Fleur Laroze, 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Franc, is the second wine, and Lady Laroze was first made in 2009.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, at the foot of the northwest slope, 1.5 kilometers from the village

Classification

Grand Cru Classé since 1955; confirmed in 2022

Owners

The Gurchy and Meslin family, since 1882

Direction

Guy Meslin

Vineyard

27 hectares in one block; a park of 2 hectares

Soil

Siliceous and clayey soils, warmer than the plateau Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 60%, Cabernet Franc 28%, Cabernet Sauvignon 8%, Petit Verdot 3%, Malbec 1%

Farming

Plowed; no weedkiller or chemical fertilizer; not certified organic, by choice

Cellar

Picked by hand; each variety, parcel and grade of fruit in its own tank

Wines

Château Laroze; La Fleur Laroze; Lady Laroze

In history

Château-Laroze-Gurchy at 35 tonneaux in 1893; 100 in 1908