Château Monbousquet

The estate

Jacques de Gères built the house in 1648. Monbousquet lies off the limestone, on the plain at Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens, and the old guides never ranked it among the growths of the slope. In 1868 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed it among just 3 important cellars making what the trade called sables Saint-Émilion, under the comte de Vassal-Montviel at 70 to 100 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and noted that those wines sold 25% below the first growths of Saint-Émilion. The count had bought it in 1858, when there was little vineyard, and planted it with the best varieties of the Médoc.

The Querre family held Monbousquet from 1945 and sold it in 1993 to Gérard and Chantal Perse. It was Perse’s first vineyard; he bought Pavie-Decesse in 1997 and Pavie in 1998. Monbousquet was in none of the classifications of 1955, 1969, 1986 or 1996, and the list of 2006 promoted it, 1 of only 6 estates raised to Grand Cru Classé that year. When the courts annulled that list, the law of 2009 protected the estates it had promoted, so Monbousquet kept the rank it had just won; it was confirmed in 2012 and 2022. Gérard Perse died on July 19, 2025, and the estate stays with the Perse family.

The vineyard is 32 hectares: sand and sandy clay in the north, gravel over sand in the south, with a pan of iron at 60 to 80 centimeters that holds water back from the roots; the land was drained on an ambitious scale in 1998. It is planted 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon at 5,500 vines a hectare, with vines 40 years old on average, and there is 1 hectare of white besides. The wine ferments in small stainless steel vats and in oak, goes through malolactic in barrel and spends about 20 months in French oak, half of it new. Angélique de Monbousquet is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Sulpice-de-Faleyrens, on the plain

Classification

Grand Cru Classé, 2006, 2012 and 2022; unclassified from 1955 to 1996

Owners

The Perse family, since 1993

Vineyard

32 hectares; 5,500 vines a hectare; vines 40 years old on average; 1 hectare of white

Ground

Sand and sandy clay in the north, gravel over sand in the south, a pan of iron at 60 to 80 centimeters

Grapes

Merlot 60%, Cabernet Franc 30%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10%

Cellar

Small stainless steel vats and oak; malolactic in barrel; about 20 months in French oak, half new

Wines

Château Monbousquet; Angélique de Monbousquet; a white

The house

Built in 1648 by Jacques de Gères

In history

A growth of the sands at 70 to 100 tonneaux in 1868

Sources: Conseil des Vins de Saint-Émilion, the classification of 2022, press kit · Wine Spectator, Gérard Perse, an obituary · INAO, Saint-Émilion grand cru: the classification for the next decade