Château TrotteVieille

The château

A lease written on parchment in Gascon puts the estate on record in the 15th century, and the name, as the local story goes, comes from an old woman who trotted down to the post house nearby for the news. William Franck, whose Traité sur les vins du Médoc first appeared in 1824, printed Trotte-Vieille among the Saint-Émilion wines of the first marque in 1853, under Mlle Dumugnon, at 6 to 8 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). For a time it was divided. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed the name 2 times in 1868, under 2 owners, and it was Édouard Jean who put it back together: in 1893 their guide gave Château TrotteVieille a heading of its own as a first growth, newly reunited, about 10 hectares on the high plateau east of the town, planted with the finest varieties and soon to make 25 tonneaux.

Marcel Borie, head of the Bordeaux merchant house Borie-Manoux, bought it in 1947 from the grandsons of Charles Jean. Émile Castéja, who married his daughter, took it over, and Philippe Castéja has run it since the 1990s. TrotteVieille was classed a Premier Grand Cru Classé B in 1955 and has held the rank in every list since; the list approved in September 2022 confirms it among the 14 Premiers Grands Crus Classés.

The 12 hectares lie on the heights east of the town, on a slope facing southwest, where 30 to 40 centimeters of clay sit directly on the limestone rock. The planting is 49% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, a large share of Cabernet Franc for Saint-Émilion, and 1 plot of Cabernet Franc, planted in 1868 before phylloxera reached the commune, has never been grafted. Farming is integrated, with chemical treatments kept to a minimum, and the estate has been certified Haute Valeur Environnementale (High Environmental Value, the French state’s environmental certification for farms) since April 1, 2021. Each plot is fermented on its own, and the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) spends 18 to 24 months in new French oak. Dame de TrotteVieille, the second wine, comes from the youngest vines and, since 2012, from Château Bergat, and is raised 18 months in barrels, half of them new.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, on the heights east of the town

Classification

Premier Grand Cru Classé B, from 1955 to 2022

Owners

The Borie and Castéja family, of Borie-Manoux, since 1947

Direction

Philippe Castéja, since the 1990s

Vineyard

12 hectares; 1 plot of Cabernet Franc planted in 1868, never grafted

Soil

30 to 40 centimeters of clay on limestone rock, facing southwest Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 49%, Cabernet Franc 46%, Cabernet Sauvignon 5%

Farming

Integrated; Haute Valeur Environnementale since April 1, 2021

Cellar

Plot by plot; 18 to 24 months in new French oak

Wines

Château TrotteVieille; Dame de TrotteVieille

In history

Among the wines of the first marque in 1853, at 6 to 8 tonneaux; reunited as a first growth by 1893