Château Le Chemin

The estate

The name is the road: the vineyard sits on the pilgrims’ way to Santiago de Compostela, at the foot of the slope of the Pomerol plateau, next to Château Rouget and Clos l’Église. It measures 92 ares and 98 centiares, a little under 1 hectare, of gravel and sandy clay, with vines planted at 5,500 a hectare and 20 years old on average: a few rows of Merlot that make about 3,500 bottles in a year, 3,600 in 2021. There is no second wine.

The Despagne-Rapin family of Château Grand Corbin-Despagne, in Saint-Émilion, bought Le Chemin in 1993, and François Despagne has held it since 2008, the year it went organic. Making wine on both sides of the border gives him the clay and gravel of Pomerol against the sand and limestone of Saint-Émilion, the same Merlot through 2 different lenses. The 2017, which I drank with friends in May 2026, came from a hard year across Bordeaux, and what it showed was restraint rather than power: careful selection, a light hand in the cellar, a wine built on texture more than spectacle. In a year like that, that is what counts.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Pomerol, at the foot of the slope of the plateau

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Despagne-Rapin family, since 1993; François Despagne, since 2008

Vineyard

92 ares 98 centiares, a little under 1 hectare; 5,500 vines a hectare; vines 20 years old on average

Ground

Gravel and sandy clay

Grapes

Merlot

Farming

Organic, since 2008

Production

About 3,500 bottles; 3,600 in 2021

Wines

Château Le Chemin; no second wine

The house

Also Château Grand Corbin-Despagne, Saint-Émilion

Sources: Château Grand Corbin-Despagne, Château Le Chemin · Château Grand Corbin-Despagne, Château Le Chemin, en français · Guide Hachette des Vins, Château Le Chemin 2021 · Guto Assumpção on Instagram, Château Le Chemin 2017, May 28, 2026