Château Monconseil-Gazin

The château

Legend has it that Charlemagne held a council on this hill after a victorious battle in 804; the château itself went up around 1300. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed Château Monconseil among the first crus bourgeois of Plassac from 1868, under Peychaud and then Ransac, at 50 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). By 1898 it was F. Baudet’s, at 100 tonneaux, and it still was in 1922. The family built the estate outward from there: in the 1950s it added the Gazin plot and the château took the name Monconseil-Gazin, in the 1960s it acquired the neighboring Château Ricaud, and in 1982 it bought back Château La Petite Roque. Jean-Michel Baudet, the 5th generation, took over from his father Michel in 1989 and runs the estate with his wife Françoise; in 2019 he was elected president of Terra Vitis.

The vines sit on the hill above Plassac, 10 minutes from the citadel of Blaye, on slopes facing south and southwest near the estuary, in clay and limestone over a stony subsoil that drains well. The reds are planted 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec and 5% Cabernet Franc, with some Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon for the whites. The vineyard is certified under Terra Vitis; the red vines get no chemicals, only organic fertilizer, and treatments are decided by observation. The red ages 12 months in French oak barrels, 25% new, and the Grande Réserve 18 months.

At a glance

Appellation

Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux

Commune

Plassac

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Baudet family, since 1894

Direction

Jean-Michel and Françoise Baudet; he took over in 1989

Soil

Clay and limestone over a stony subsoil, on slopes facing south and southwest Terroir of Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux →

Grapes

Red: Merlot 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 25%, Malbec 10%, Cabernet Franc 5%. White: Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon

Farming

Terra Vitis

Cellar

The red 12 months in French oak, 25% new; the Grande Réserve 18 months

Wines

Château Monconseil-Gazin, red and white; Grande Réserve; Mon Rosé

In history

Château Monconseil, a first cru bourgeois of Plassac from 1868; F. Baudet’s from 1898