Château
Château Lespault-Martillac
A dome of deep gravel at Martillac with a name in the books since 1853, owned by the Bolleau family and run since 2009 by the Bernard family of Domaine de Chevalier.
- Appellation
- Pessac-Léognan
The estate
Lespault-Martillac sits on a dome of deep gravel over slightly clayey soil, and its name has a long record. In 1853 William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, already had Lespeau at Martillac under Bentéjac, at 25 to 30 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). The Bentéjacs kept it until at least 1908; the spelling became Lespaut in 1886, the crop reached 30 tonneaux in 1893, and 5 tonneaux of white joined it from 1901. By 1922 the Cru Lespaut had passed to de Rochette.
The Bolleau family owns it, and in 2009 it entrusted the estate to Domaine de Chevalier, whose Bernard family runs it; Louis de Bouglon is cellar master. Chemical weedkillers and fertilizers are banned: the soil is plowed and weeded mechanically, only organic compost goes on it, and pests are fought with predatory mites and pheromones. The vines average 40 years, planted at 6,600 a hectare. The harvest is by hand in several passes, sorted on tables before and after destemming, and each plot is vinified apart. The red ages about 14 months in barrel, 4 to 5 months of it on its lees; the white ferments 2 weeks and ages 10 months on its lees with stirring. The estate makes about 25,000 bottles of red and 3,000 of white.
At a glance
- Appellation
- Pessac-Léognan
- Commune
- Martillac
- Classification
- No classification
- Owners
- The Bolleau family
- Operator
- Domaine de Chevalier, the Bernard family, since 2009
- Direction
- Louis de Bouglon, cellar master
- Vineyard
- Vines 40 years old on average; 6,600 vines a hectare
- Ground
- A dome of deep gravel over slightly clayey soil
- Farming
- No chemical weedkillers or fertilizers; organic compost; predatory mites and pheromones
- Cellar
- Picked by hand in several passes; plot by plot; red, about 14 months in barrel; white, 10 months on its lees
- Production
- 25,000 bottles of red, 3,000 of white
- In history
- Lespeau under Bentéjac in 1853, at 25 to 30 tonneaux; the Cru Lespaut in 1922
Sources: Château Lespault-Martillac, information · Château Lespault-Martillac, technical sheet of the red 2016 · Domaine de Chevalier, other family properties
The record
Château Lespault-Martillac is in the Pessac-Léognan appellation.
The classification of the Graves was approved in 1953 and completed in 1959. It has a single rank and 2 lists, red and white, and an estate may be classified for one and not the other.
Source: Syndicat Viticole de Pessac-Léognan, the Crus Classés de Graves
Cru Classé
By invitation only.
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