Château Suau

The estate

Hélie de Suau held the property in the 17th century and gave it his name. The Lur Saluces family of Yquem took it from 1745, and a line of owners followed through the 19th century. It made red as well as sweet white: under Émile Garros, Suau ran to 15 to 18 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) of white a year and about 8 of red, close to 1 third of the crop, and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, lists that red in his Région de Sauternes of 1908 among the wines of the graves and the palus. The name has always needed its commune. Clarets and Sauternes, a guide published in 1920, told readers not to confuse the Barsac growth with a château of the same name elsewhere, and there is still a Château Suau at Capian, in Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux, a different estate and not a classified growth.

Daniel Biarnès bought Suau in 1967 and chose to make the wine at Château Navarro, another of his properties, where it has been made ever since. Corinne Biarnès-Dubourdieu took the direction in 2003. In the middle of the 2010s the family let the estate to Domaine de Chevalier on a 9 year lease, and from 2024 it has been let, again for 9 years, to Château de Rolland, a Barsac neighbor run by the Guignard family.

About 5.5 hectares are in production, at 6,000 vines a hectare, planted 80% Sémillon, 10% Muscadelle and 10% Sauvignon, and the yield averages about 20 hectoliters a hectare. The grapes are picked by hand in successive passes. L’Attelage de Suau has been the second wine since the 2002 vintage.

At a glance

Appellation

Barsac; the wines may also be sold as Sauternes

Commune

Barsac

Classification

Deuxième Cru Classé 1855

Owners

The Biarnès family, since 1967

Operator

Château de Rolland, of Barsac, on a 9 year lease from 2024; Domaine de Chevalier before it

Direction

Corinne Biarnès-Dubourdieu, since 2003

Vineyard

About 5.5 hectares in production; 6,000 vines a hectare; about 20 hectoliters a hectare

Grapes

Sémillon 80%, Muscadelle 10%, Sauvignon 10%

Cellar

Picked by hand in successive passes; made at Château Navarro, not at the property

Wines

Château Suau; L’Attelage de Suau, since the 2002 vintage

Not to be confused with

Château Suau at Capian, in Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux, a different estate and not a classified growth

In history

Under Émile Garros, 15 to 18 tonneaux of white and about 8 of red

Sources: Domaine de Chevalier, the family properties · INAO, cahier des charges Barsac · Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855, the classified growths