Château Loupiac-Gaudiet

The estate

In the 18th century the shipowner Jean Belso built the Château de Loupiac here. Reinhold Dezeimeris came to it in 1854, and when phylloxera destroyed the vineyards of the Gironde he made it a field of experiment. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list vines at Gaudiet under Mme Dezeimeris in 1874, at 25 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of red and 25 of white; in 1893 they first call it Château Loupiac-Gaudiet, under Reinhold Dezeimeris, and add that growers came every day to learn the Dezeimeris pruning. Their edition of 1922 counted his work a great service to viticulture and the estate 1 of the best crus of Loupiac, planted entirely with Sémillon and Sauvignon.

Camille Ducau bought it on June 27, 1919. Marc Ducau followed in 1964, Daniel Sanfourche joined in 1986 and his wife Marie-Laurence in 1991, and their son Nicolas came in 2014; the family counts 5 generations and marked its centenary here in 2019.

From the house on the slopes above the Garonne the family farms 30 hectares of vines: 26 for sweet Loupiac and 4 for Bordeaux. The vineyard is 90% Sémillon and 10% Sauvignon, picked only by hand, in several passes, to gather the botrytized grapes. Château Loupiac-Gaudiet is the Loupiac; Château Pontac is a red Bordeaux of 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon.

At a glance

Appellation

Loupiac; Bordeaux, red

Commune

Loupiac, on the slopes above the Garonne

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Ducau and Sanfourche family, since June 27, 1919

Vineyard

30 hectares: 26 of Loupiac, 4 of Bordeaux

Grapes

Sémillon 90%, Sauvignon 10%

Cellar

Picked only by hand, in several passes

Wines

Château Loupiac-Gaudiet; Château Pontac, Bordeaux red

In history

Reinhold Dezeimeris’s field of experiment against phylloxera; Château Loupiac-Gaudiet from 1893

Sources: Château Loupiac-Gaudiet, in French · Château Loupiac-Gaudiet, the property · Château Loupiac-Gaudiet, the Loupiac · Château Loupiac-Gaudiet, Château Pontac, in French