Château Lilian Ladouys

The château

The name is old: La Doys, from a Gascon word for a spring, held in fief in 1564 by Jacques de Becoyran, lord of Lafite, whose château stands a few hundred meters away. The Barre family owned it for 150 years from the 18th century and built the chartreuse and, later, its 2 towers, which still carry the initials A. B., for Auguste Barre, and C. L., for Château Ladouys; William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, lists Ladouys under Barre in 1845. By 1893 it belonged to the Audon family, and in 1898 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, describe an estate of 75 hectares, about three quarters of them vines, all on gravel rises bordering Lafon-Rochet, Cos d’Estournel and Lafite, lately replanted and enlarged and able to make 200 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). Frédéric Audon had bought Lafon-Rochet in 1897, and the 2 estates were worked together until the Salabert family bought Ladouys in 1924.

The 20th century was unkind to it. After the First World War and the economic crisis the vineyard was divided and forgotten, until Christian Thiéblot and his wife Lilian bought it in the mid-1980s and gave it her name. Jacky and Françoise Lorenzetti bought it in 2008 and made their 1st vintage in 2009, the year a semi-underground vat room was begun; the long restructuring of the vineyard started in 2010, and the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte renovated and extended the cellars. Éric Boissenot has been consulting enologist since 2013, and Manon Lorenzetti, of the family’s 2nd generation, joined in 2018. In 2021 the family bought Château Lafon-Rochet, and the 2 estates were together again for the first time since 1924. The Lorenzettis also own Château Pédesclaux in Pauillac, bought in 2009.

The vineyard covers more than 40 hectares of a property of 80, on a plateau of deep clay and gravel along the line that runs toward Calon Ségur, 80% gravel and 20% clay and limestone, planted 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc; in 2018 the estate added adjoining plots of Châteaux Clauzet and Tour de Pez. It has held Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 since 2018, began converting to organic farming in 2020 and now farms every plot organically, the 2024 being its 1st organically grown vintage. The soil is worked and grassed in turn and fed with a compost made for the estate with a Médoc farm. The second wine is La Devise de Lilian. The estate won the Coupe des Crus Bourgeois in 2015 and was a Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in the classification of 2020; it is not in that of 2025.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Estèphe

Commune

Saint-Estèphe

Classification

Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel in 2020; not in the list of 2025

Owners

Jacky and Françoise Lorenzetti, since 2008

Direction

Manon Lorenzetti, since 2018

Consultant

Éric Boissenot, since 2013

Vineyard

More than 40 hectares of a property of 80

Soil

80% gravel, 20% clay and limestone Terroir of Saint-Estèphe →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 47%, Merlot 40%, Petit Verdot 10%, Cabernet Franc 3%

Farming

Organic, from the 2024 vintage; Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since 2018

Wines

Château Lilian Ladouys; La Devise de Lilian

The house

Also Château Lafon-Rochet, Saint-Estèphe, since 2021, and Château Pédesclaux, Pauillac, since 2009

In history

The Barre family for 150 years; 75 hectares under the Audons in 1898