Château Trotanoy

The château

The name is what the growers called the soil: trop ennuyeux, too wearisome, because the clay and gravel set hard and fight the plow. Trotanoy sits on the plateau just north of the village of Catusseau, the château ringed on 4 sides by its own vines. The Giraud family planted it in 1761 and built the house.

The Girauds met phylloxera early and head on. In October 1881 the international phylloxera congress met at Bordeaux and sent a commission out to see what growers were actually doing, and one of the properties it visited was the Domaine de Trotanoy at Pomerol, Monsieur Giraud’s. He was treating with carbon disulfide, with success, and he had also grafted, early: English cleft grafts made in 1876 onto Clinton cuttings, raised in the nursery, lifted the year after and planted wherever a phylloxered vine had been pulled out. The grafted variety was Cabernet Sauvignon. The commission found the grafts in their 6th leaf, growing very well and fruiting better than the ungrafted vines of the same age beside them. Five years later, Édouard Féret’s column of the first growths of Pomerol carried Trotanoy under Giraud frères.

Jean-Pierre Moueix bought Trotanoy in 1953. Christian Moueix has been president of the house since 1991, and Edouard Moueix, the 3rd generation, general director since 2003. The vineyard is 7.2 hectares, gravel on clay to the east and black clay on the iron pan where the land falls away to the west, rising to 36 meters. It is planted to Merlot, with a little Cabernet Franc in some vintages, and the vines average 35 years, with parcels over 60. The rows are plowed deep 4 to 6 times a year, and 7 wells of 6 meters were sunk under the plateau to drain it.

Optical sorting came in with the 2009 vintage. The wine ferments in small concrete vats and is raised 16 to 18 months in French oak, with half the barrels new. Espérance de Trotanoy, the second wine, was first made in 2009 from the gravel parcels in the northeast of the property, and it is made only in some years.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Commune

Pomerol, the plateau just north of Catusseau

Classification

Michelin Guide, 1 grape (2026)

Owner

Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix; Jean-Pierre Moueix bought it in 1953

Direction

Christian Moueix, president since 1991; Edouard Moueix, general director, the 3rd generation, since 2003

Vineyard

7.2 hectares, rising to 36 meters; vines 35 years old on average, some parcels over 60; 7 drainage wells

Soil

Gravel on clay to the east; black clay on the iron pan to the west Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot, with a little Cabernet Franc in some vintages

Cellar

Optical sorting since 2009; small concrete vats; 16 to 18 months in French oak, half the barrels new

Wines

Château Trotanoy; Espérance de Trotanoy, first made in 2009, and only in some years

The name

Trop ennuyeux, too wearisome: clay and gravel that set hard and fight the plow

In history

Planted by the Girauds in 1761; grafts of 1876 seen by the phylloxera congress in 1881; a first growth of Pomerol under Giraud frères in 1886