Château Trianon

The château

Trianon’s story begins in the 17th century, with a counselor of Louis XIV who worked this land and called the wine of Saint-Émilion the nectar of the gods. At the end of that century notables of Libourne and Saint-Émilion built the château and named it for the Trianon of Versailles. In the 19th century it was a country house among meadows and vines, in the hands of the Andrieu and Lecointre families, and the trade books kept track of it: Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, listed a small growth at Trianon among the 2nd crus of Saint-Émilion from 1883, under G. Beurcq, at 20 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and from 1897 under the Andrieu name, with Louis Andrieu making 15 tonneaux in 1908 and still there in 1922. Until 1952 only 4 hectares were in vine, then 6.5.

The Lecointre family sold it in December 2000 to Dominique Hébrard, a co-owner of Château Cheval Blanc until its sale in 1999, and from the 2001 vintage he replanted and drained the vineyard and built a new vat room and barrel cellar. On February 20, 2017, Michel Ohayon, owner of the Financière Immobilière Bordelaise, became the majority shareholder; Hébrard stayed on as co-owner and director. Alizée Huet has been cellar master since 2015, and Hubert de Boüard advises.

The estate covers 16 hectares, 14.5 of them vines, on sandy clay over iron crust, with red gravel on the surface of some parcels. It is planted mostly to Merlot, with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a little Carmenère, an old Bordeaux grape now rarely grown in the region. The grapes arrive by gravity and are sorted on tables, the vats are temperature-controlled stainless steel and concrete, some of them inverted cones, and the wine ages in 2 air-conditioned, semi-buried cellars, in barrels from 7 coopers. The estate was certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) at level 3 on March 16, 2020, and ISO 14001 on August 12, 2020. Besides Château Trianon it makes Le Petit Trianon, Pavillon de Trianon in red, white and rosé, and Madame de Montespan.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, the southwest plateau

Classification

No classification

Owners

Michel Ohayon’s Financière Immobilière Bordelaise, majority shareholder since February 20, 2017; Dominique Hébrard, co-owner since December 2000

Direction

Dominique Hébrard; Alizée Huet, cellar master, since 2015

Consultant

Hubert de Boüard

Vineyard

14.5 hectares of vines in an estate of 16

Soil

Sandy clay over iron crust; red gravel on some parcels Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Mostly Merlot; Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, a little Carmenère

Farming

Haute Valeur Environnementale, level 3, since March 16, 2020; ISO 14001, since August 12, 2020

Cellar

Gravity; sorting tables; stainless steel and concrete vats; barrels from 7 coopers

Wines

Château Trianon; Le Petit Trianon; Pavillon de Trianon, red, white and rosé; Madame de Montespan

In history

A 2nd cru of Saint-Émilion in the trade books, 1883 to 1922; the Andrieu family from 1897