Château Segonzac

The château

Segonzac was a cru before it was a showpiece. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed it among the first crus bourgeois of Saint-Genès-de-Fours, now Saint-Genès-de-Blaye, under Beaupoil de Saint-Aulaire from 1868, at 50 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) from 1874. In 1887 Jean Dupuy bought it from the heirs and rebuilt it on a grand scale: he put up the buildings and had 100 hectares of vines planted in 3 years under Achille Laborde, with 18 kilometers of ditches, a cellar for 1,800 tonneaux and a vat house for 600 driven by a steam engine, the first of its kind in the Gironde. Half the vineyard was on the slopes and half in the palus, facing Château Latour and Château Beaucaillou across the river. The Société d’agriculture gave Dupuy a large gold medal in 1892, and in 1898 the estate made 250 tonneaux from the slopes and 400 from the palus. Dupuy had larger affairs as well: he became proprietor and director of the newspaper Le Petit Parisien in 1888 and was minister of agriculture from 1899 to 1902.

The 20th century left another kind of mark. In the Second World War a British commando, on its way to sabotage enemy installations in Bordeaux, landed on the shore beside the property; a plaque on the wall recalls it, and in 2017 the estate welcomed a reenactment of Operation Frankton. In 1990 Jacques Marmet, a Swiss, bought Segonzac and invested in the cellar and the trellising; in 2017 Guillaume de La Quintinie was in charge of the operation.

The vineyard, a little over 43 hectares, lies on a sunny slope directly above the Gironde, 3 kilometers north of Blaye, exposed from south to northwest, on clay and limestone over a limestone table several meters thick. The red vines are 60% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, 30 years old on average, and the first organic vintage, certified by Ecocert, was 2012. Château Segonzac Tradition spends 6 months in barrel; the Vieilles Vignes, from the oldest vines, ages 12 months with 20% new barrels; and Héritage, 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14 to 18 months in new barrels.

At a glance

Appellation

Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux

Commune

Saint-Genès-de-Blaye

Classification

No classification

Bought

By Jean Dupuy in 1887; by Jacques Marmet in 1990

Vineyard

A little over 43 hectares; vines 30 years old on average

Soil

Clay and limestone over a limestone table, above the Gironde Terroir of Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux →

Grapes

Merlot 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%, Malbec 10%, Cabernet Franc 5%, Petit Verdot 5%

Farming

Organic, certified by Ecocert, from the 2012 vintage

Cellar

Tradition 6 months in barrel; Vieilles Vignes 12 months, 20% new; Héritage 14 to 18 months in new barrels

Wines

Château Segonzac Tradition; Vieilles Vignes; Héritage

In history

A first cru bourgeois from 1868; 100 hectares planted by Jean Dupuy in 3 years; a steam-driven vat house