Lassègue

The estate

Lassègue stands in a natural amphitheater on the southern slope of Saint-Émilion, at Saint-Hippolyte, facing south and southwest. The shape of the place was already plain in 1874, when Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, set the estate halfway up the southern face of the Saint-Émilion hills, with rich vineyards rising behind it and a wide plain falling gently away at its feet. The Belliquets held it through every edition from 1868 to 1922, making 40 to 60 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) at the start, 100 by 1897 under Saint-Brice Belliquet, and 80 in 1922. The house is an 18th century chartreuse.

2 families have held Lassègue together since 2003: the Jacksons, of Jess and Barbara Jackson in California, and the Seillans, of Pierre and Monique Seillan. Pierre Seillan, who trained in Armagnac and has made wine for the family’s properties in France and in the United States, has worked for more than 30 years by what he named the micro cru method, block by block rather than estate by estate. His son Nicolas Seillan makes the wine here now, and Nicolas’s wife Christina works on the property. No Saint-Émilion list carried Lassègue until 2022, when it became a Grand Cru Classé for the first time.

The 36 hectares are clay that climbs toward limestone in changing proportion, planted 55% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, a good deal more Cabernet Franc than most of Saint-Émilion carries. The micro cru idea goes into the cellar too: the barrels are made to order by a cooperage in the Vosges in which the Jackson family holds a stake, with the forest and the toast chosen lot by lot, and 50 to 60% of the wood is new, depending on the vintage.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Hippolyte, in a natural amphitheater on the southern slope

Classification

Grand Cru Classé in 2022, the first time

Owners

The Jackson and Seillan families, since 2003

Direction

Nicolas Seillan, winemaker

Vineyard

36 hectares facing south and southwest

Ground

Clay climbing toward limestone

Grapes

Merlot 55%, Cabernet Franc 35%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%

Cellar

Barrels made to order in the Vosges, forest and toast chosen lot by lot; 50 to 60% new wood

The house

An 18th century chartreuse

In history

Under the Belliquets from 1868 to 1922, at 40 to 100 tonneaux

Sources: Château Lassègue, a nourishing land · Château Lassègue, the memory of the vine · Château Lassègue, the wines · Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, the Saint-Émilion classification of 2022