Château Rauzan-Gassies

The estate

Rauzan-Gassies and Rauzan-Ségla were one property until the 18th century. Pierre Desmezures de Rauzan acquired the Maison Noble de Gassies in the 17th century and made it a wine estate, from a house that Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, traced back to 1539 and a squire named Gaillard de Tardes. The division that followed left 2 second growths sharing a name, and Gassies is the smaller of the pair. The name ranked high long before the brokers: William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, reprinted a table of Bordeaux prices of about 1745 in which a Madame Gassie already stands among the second growths of Margaux and Cantenac, beside Durfort, Lascombe and Gorse. As an estate of its own it appears in his edition of 1845, under de Puyboreau, at 30 to 40 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and the brokers made it a second growth in 1855.

The Quiés came to it through a wedding present. In 1936 Paul Quié, a Paris wine merchant, gave his wife Lucienne Château Bel Orme Tronquoy-de-Lalande; Croizet-Bages followed in 1942 and Rauzan-Gassies in 1946. Jean-Michel Quié took over the 3 châteaux in 1968, and his children have run them since 2000, Jean-Philippe as technical manager and Anne-Françoise in charge of sales. The vineyard runs to 30 hectares in Margaux, planted 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot. About 70,000 bottles are made a year, aged 18 months in oak, 55% new. Gassies de Rauzan-Gassies is the second wine, and L’Orme de Rauzan-Gassies the third.

At a glance

Appellation

Margaux

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

The Quié family, since 1946

Direction

Jean-Philippe Quié, technical manager, and Anne-Françoise Quié, sales, since 2000

Vineyard

30 hectares in Margaux

Grapes

Cabernet Sauvignon 58%, Merlot 40%, Petit Verdot 2%

Cellar

18 months in oak, 55% new

Production

About 70,000 bottles a year

Wines

Château Rauzan-Gassies; Gassies de Rauzan-Gassies; L’Orme de Rauzan-Gassies

In history

A Madame Gassie among the second growths about 1745; an estate of its own in print from 1845

Sources: Domaines Quié, Château Rauzan-Gassies · Domaines Quié, the family · Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux, Rauzan-Gassies · CIVB, the classifications of 1855 · Château Rauzan-Ségla, terroir