Château Roudier

The château

Roudier was a place name at Montagne before it was a château. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, find it in 1868, when 2 Berthons, the elder and the younger, each made 20 to 25 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) there. By 1897 the Berthon holding, Au Roudier, had risen from the crus artisans et paysans to the crus bourgeois and first artisans, at 50 tonneaux in 1898 under Pierre Berthon, and by 1908 Ernest Berthon’s holding made 125 tonneaux.

The estate has grown with each generation since. Ernest Berthon, mayor of Montagne in the 1920s, was followed by his son-in-law Roger Capdemourlin and later by Jacques Capdemourlin, who brought in modern methods learned from the enologist Émile Peynaud; Jacques’s sons, Thierry and François Capdemourlin, carry it on today. The vines are on clay and limestone in the south of the appellation, and the 2022 is 75% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented with pump-overs and put through its malolactic. The family’s Vignobles Capdemourlin also own Château Balestard La Tonnelle and Château Cap de Mourlin, both Saint-Émilion Grands Crus Classés.

At a glance

Appellation

Montagne-Saint-Émilion

Commune

Montagne, in the south of the appellation

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Capdemourlin family; Thierry and François Capdemourlin

Soil

Clay and limestone Terroir of Montagne-Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

The 2022: Merlot 75%, Cabernet Franc 23%, Cabernet Sauvignon 2%

Wines

Château Roudier

The house

Vignobles Capdemourlin: also Château Balestard La Tonnelle and Château Cap de Mourlin, Saint-Émilion

In history

Au Roudier of the Berthons among the crus bourgeois by 1897; 125 tonneaux in 1908