Château Plain Point

The château

Plain Point stands on the crest of a hill above the plateaus of Fronsac, and its records begin in 1480. The De Marbun family, members of the parlement, the old royal court of justice, held it; a fire struck in the 17th century; at the Revolution its owner, De Gombaut, was arrested and executed, and the château was sold at auction to a farmer of Saint-Aignan. In 1855 Joseph Chaperon, a wine merchant of Libourne, bought it and rebuilt it into the house that stands today. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list him there from 1868 and put the estate first among the bourgeois and artisan growths of Saint-Aignan, though they could not settle on its name: Plainpoin in 1868, Plein-Point in 1883, Plainpoint from 1893. That year, under A. Gourmel, a banker at Libourne, it was an estate of 50 hectares with 35 in vines on fine rises of clay and limestone, whose wines were classed among the second côtes of Fronsac but often matched the firsts, selling at 900 to 1,200 francs the tonneau (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels); by 1901 the crop had reached 150 tonneaux.

Shi Yuzhu bought Plain Point in 2013 and set about remaking it. The 100 hectares hold vines, woods, ponds and wild land, on a patchwork of Fronsac molasse, starfish limestone and blue clay, and every year 4 hectares are pulled up and replanted with varieties and rootstocks better suited to the soil. The vines, 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40 years old on average, are certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms), level 3, and see neither herbicide nor insecticide: 250 ewes graze the rows from October to April, draft horses work the young vines and the tender parcels, and there are beehives. In 2023 the architect Olivier Chadebost built a gravity-fed winery with a fall of 15 meters and 87 vats, 60 of concrete, 13 of wood and 14 of stainless steel, over a half-buried cellar held at 15°C. The wine spends 12 months, 60% in French oak barrels and 40% in stainless steel, and the estate makes about 270,000 bottles a year; M de Plain Point is the second wine. A guest house and a restaurant complete the place.

When I visited in April 2025 the estate was still being readied to receive the public, and what impressed me was the cellar, modern in design and grand in scale. The first white, the 2019, made from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon and sold as Bordeaux Blanc, which I tasted in October 2025, has fresh citrus and orchard fruit and an elegant balance. The red 2018, which I tasted at the château and wrote about in October 2025, has supple fruit, a round texture and good balance, the kind of wine behind Fronsac’s rising name for quality and value.

At a glance

Appellation

Fronsac

Commune

Saint-Aignan

Classification

No classification

Owner

Shi Yuzhu, since 2013

Vineyard

100 hectares of vines, woods, ponds and wild land; vines 40 years old on average; 4 hectares replanted each year

Soil

Fronsac molasse, starfish limestone, blue clay Terroir of Fronsac →

Grapes

Merlot 85%, Cabernet Franc 10%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3; no herbicide or insecticide; 250 ewes from October to April; draft horses

Cellar

Gravity-fed winery of 2023 by Olivier Chadebost, 87 vats, a fall of 15 meters; 12 months, 60% in French oak, 40% in stainless steel

Production

About 270,000 bottles a year

Wines

Château Plain Point; Château Plain Point white, since 2019; M de Plain Point

In history

Rebuilt by Joseph Chaperon from 1855; 50 hectares, 35 of vines, under A. Gourmel in 1893; 150 tonneaux in 1901