Château Taillefer

The château

Taillefer is on the Belleyme map drawn for Louis XV in 1761, and its plots and buildings are set down on the Napoleonic survey of 1805. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, always filed it under Libourne, among the wines of the sands, and always in the Buidin family: under Buidin-Buffin in 1874, at 15 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), then under Mme veuve A. Buidin fils. It was the widow who made it; their notice of 1893 credits her large plantings, with Bouschet and Merlot dominant, with turning it into one of the best growths of the sands of Saint-Émilion and bringing it to 30 tonneaux, the figure Féret’s Saint-Émilion et ses vins still printed in 1908.

Antoine Moueix, a wine merchant, bought Taillefer in 1923. It was the first property the Moueix family bought in Bordeaux, and it belongs to the Bernard Moueix branch. In 2013 it passed to the 5th generation: Claire Moueix runs it with her husband, Cyril Basteau, who oversees the winemaking. The family also owns Château Tauzinat l’Hermitage in Saint-Émilion.

The vineyard lies on the southern side of the plateau, 1 kilometer from the center of the appellation, on silica and gravel over blue clay rich in iron oxides. The 12 hectares are planted 92% Merlot and 8% Cabernet Franc at 6,060 vines a hectare, 35 years old on average, and the estate has held ISO 14001 since 2015 and Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) since 2017. The grapes ferment with a gentle extraction in temperature-controlled concrete vats, and the wine ages 12 months in French oak, 40% new; the 2022 made 52,000 bottles.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Libourne

Classification

No classification

Owners

The Moueix family, Bernard Moueix branch, since 1923

Direction

Claire Moueix, since 2013; Cyril Basteau, the winemaking

Vineyard

12 hectares, 1 kilometer from the center of the appellation; 6,060 vines a hectare; vines 35 years old on average

Soil

Silica and gravel over blue clay rich in iron oxides Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 92%, Cabernet Franc 8%

Farming

ISO 14001 since 2015; Haute Valeur Environnementale since 2017

Cellar

Concrete vats; 12 months in French oak, 40% new

Production

52,000 bottles in 2022

Wines

Château Taillefer

The house

Also Château Tauzinat l’Hermitage, Saint-Émilion

In history

On the Belleyme map of 1761; in the Buidin family, 15 tonneaux in 1874, 30 in 1893 and 1908