Château Montrose

The château

Etienne Théodore Dumoulin founded Montrose in 1815, putting the first vines on what is now called Terrace 4, and 40 years later the brokers ranked it a Second Growth, the youngest in the list. The books show how new it was. It is not in the Topographie de tous les vignobles connus of 1816 by André Jullien, the Paris wine merchant who surveyed the vineyards of the world, nor in his edition of 1832. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, records Dumoulin newly in possession of the former Ségur estate, which is Calon, at 120 to 160 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and the cleared ridge above it that became Montrose is in no column of the book. Cyrus Redding, whose A History and Description of Modern Wines appeared in 1833, is the first to print the word Montrose. By 1845 Franck found some placing it among the seconds and others among the thirds, and Charles Cocks explained why in 1846: it had been planted only very recently. By 1868 Cocks and Édouard Féret, in Bordeaux et ses vins, the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed it a second growth. Case File 05 follows how a name that did not exist in 1824 climbed so far so fast, and why no estate has done it since.

The property runs to 130 hectares, 95 of them under vine in 115 plots on 2 gravel terraces, Terrace 3 and Terrace 4, with 35 hectares kept as woods, meadows and ponds. The vineyard is 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Martin and Olivier Bouygues bought the estate in 2006, after 3 generations of the Charmolüe family, and rebuilt it between 2007 and 2013: 10,000 square meters of new cellars, a barrel hall 11 meters high, 3,000 square meters of solar panels and a geothermal system.

La Dame de Montrose, the second wine, was created in 1983 in tribute to Yvonne Charmolüe, who ran the château from 1944 to 1960, and takes on average 40% to 45% of the production. Terrasse de Château Montrose and a white, Montrose Blanc, complete the range.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Estèphe

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855; Michelin Guide, 3 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Bouygues family, since 2006; the Charmolüe family for 3 generations before

Vineyard

95 hectares under vine in 115 plots, on a property of 130 hectares

Soil

2 gravel terraces, Terrace 3 and Terrace 4, over clay and limestone Terroir of Saint-Estèphe →

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 63%, Merlot 31%, Cabernet Franc 4%, Petit Verdot 2%

Cellar

Rebuilt between 2007 and 2013: 10,000 square meters of cellars; solar panels and geothermal energy

Wines

Château Montrose; La Dame de Montrose, since 1983; Terrasse de Château Montrose; Montrose Blanc

In history

First planted in 1815; first printed in 1833; a Second Growth in 1855