Château Rouget

The château

Rouget appears in the archives and the land register from 1700, and the Bayonne family built the château in that period; the last of them, Pierre Bayonne, was mayor of Pomerol under the Consulate and the First Empire. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, list Rouget together with Gazin under Fabre in 1868 and 1874, at 50 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) in 1874; from 1886 it stands alone, under Dupuy de La Grand’Rive. Féret’s Saint-Émilion et ses vins of 1908 describes an estate of 14 hectares in one piece, 8 of them in vines, on the plateau by the road to the old church, classed among the first growths at 25 tonneaux. Dupuy de La Grand’Rive held it until 1918, and by 1922 it belonged to Gabriel Besse. The Labruyère family bought Rouget in 1992, and in 2008 Jean-Pierre Labruyère handed the reins to his son Edouard.

The property covers 17 hectares, planted 85% Merlot with Cabernet Franc, on soils of clay and gravel in places and clay and silica in others, over a subsoil of alios rich in iron; the vines are about 40 years old on average. Two thirds of them lie around the château, and the rest in parcels facing Petit-Village, Le Pin and Trotanoy. The grapes are picked by hand into crates of 25 kilos, and each parcel is fermented apart, in wooden truncated vats, in stainless steel, and partly with the berries placed straight into barrels. The second wine is Le Carillon de Rouget.

The 1982, which I tasted in September 2026, is a legend you do not sip casually: drinking it felt less like a tasting than a privilege.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Pomerol

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Labruyère family, since 1992; Edouard Labruyère, since 2008

Vineyard

17 hectares, two thirds around the château; vines about 40 years old on average

Soil

Clay and gravel, clay and silica, over alios rich in iron Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 85%, Cabernet Franc

Cellar

Picked by hand; parcel by parcel in wooden truncated vats, stainless steel and barrels

Wines

Château Rouget; Le Carillon de Rouget

In history

Built by the Bayonne family, on the register from 1700; with Gazin under Fabre in 1868 and 1874; a first growth of 14 hectares, 8 of vines, in 1908