Château Le Gay

The château

Le Gay was counted among the best of Pomerol early on. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list Au Gay among the first growths from 1868, under the Greloud family, at 35 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). In 1886 they called it one of the best-placed properties of Pomerol, about 20 hectares of the best vines giving full-bodied wines of great reputation, and noted the gold medal for improved cultivation given to Henri Greloud in 1884. Charles Greloud held it from 1893; by 1922 it stood as Château Le Gay under A. Robin.

For 60 years it then belonged to the demoiselles Robin, Thérèse and Marie, who were held in high regard in Pomerol and kept their father’s motto, quality before quantity. Catherine Péré-Vergé took it over in 2002 and rebuilt it: a new vat room and barrel cellar working by gravity, the house restored, and 4 hectares of land that had never carried vines planted. Her son Henri Parent took the reins after her, and new works from 2013 allowed the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) to be fermented entirely in barrel, from the harvest on.

The cellar is split into 3 fermenting rooms cooled by the air, like giant refrigerators, where long cold soaks draw out the tannins over several days before fermentation in new barrels. Only the second wine, Manoir de Gay, is made the classic way, in temperature-controlled concrete vats. La Dame de Pomerol, a cuvée named in homage to Catherine Péré-Vergé, is destemmed by hand and fermented in barrels made from the heart of oaks 300 years old from the forest of Tronçais. The family’s Vignobles Parent also own Château Montviel and La Violette in Pomerol.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol Terroir of Pomerol →

Commune

Pomerol

Classification

No classification

Owners

Vignobles Parent, Henri Parent; Catherine Péré-Vergé, from 2002; Thérèse and Marie Robin before her, for 60 years

Cellar

Gravity; the grand vin fermented wholly in new barrels, since works begun in 2013; Manoir de Gay in concrete

Wines

Château Le Gay; Manoir de Gay; La Dame de Pomerol

The house

Also Château Montviel and La Violette, Pomerol

In history

Au Gay, a first growth of Pomerol under the Greloud family, from 1868; about 20 hectares in 1886; Château Le Gay under A. Robin in 1922