Château Lesparre

The estate

Lesparre was the seigneurial domain of the comtesse de La Thibaude before it was a wine estate of any size. By 1874 it had a new house and an owner, F. Bloy, who had enlarged it to about 200 hectares, 2 thirds of them vines, making 250 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of red and 100 of white; that is the Château de Lesparre that Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, described that year. From 1893 it belonged to G. Ayguesparsse, president of the commercial court of Libourne, with about 250 hectares, making 200 tonneaux of red and 200 of white, and in 1898 its whites were counted among the excellent table wines of the Entre-deux-Mers.

The Gonets came from Champagne, where Charles Gonet founded the family house in 1802. Michel Gonet fell for the Bordeaux country and bought Lesparre in 1986 with his 3 children; his sons Charles-Henri and Frédéric built its markets, and today Sophie Signolle-Gonet, Charles-Henri and Frédéric direct the family’s vineyards, which also take in Château d’Eck and other estates in Pessac-Léognan and Château Durand-Bayle in Graves de Vayres. At Lesparre the family first cut its inputs by 70%, and the estate has been certified organic from the 2011 vintage.

The 40 hectares lie on sandy gravel and boulbène. The red is 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, picked by machine and sorted in the vat room, fermented 3 to 4 weeks in temperature-controlled stainless steel and aged 14 to 18 months in new oak barrels. Beside it come a white Graves de Vayres and a Bordeaux Supérieur.

At a glance

Appellation

Graves de Vayres, red and white; Bordeaux Supérieur

Commune

Beychac-et-Caillau

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Gonet family, since 1986

Direction

Sophie Signolle-Gonet, Charles-Henri and Frédéric Gonet

Vineyard

40 hectares

Ground

Sandy gravel and boulbène

Grapes

Red: Merlot 95%, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc 5%

Farming

Organic, from the 2011 vintage

Cellar

Picked by machine; 3 to 4 weeks in stainless steel; 14 to 18 months in new oak barrels

Wines

Château Lesparre, red and white Graves de Vayres; a Bordeaux Supérieur

The house

Vignobles Michel Gonet: Champagne at Avize; Château d’Eck, Pessac-Léognan; Château Durand-Bayle, Graves de Vayres

In history

Seigneurial domain of the comtesse de La Thibaude; about 250 hectares under G. Ayguesparsse from 1893

Sources: Vignobles Michel Gonet, Château Lesparre, in French · Vignobles Michel Gonet, the history of a family · Vignobles Michel Gonet, Bordeaux, in French · Graves de Vayres, Château Lesparre