Château Vieux Landat

The château

Vieux Landat is one family’s work. At the end of the summer of 1999 Pierre Signolle, after 10 years in viticulture, took over the estate at Cissac-Médoc. Between 2000 and 2010 half the vineyard was replanted, mostly to Merlot, for rounder wines, and Petit Verdot came in as a new grape; a cellar of 1,200 square meters went up, with temperature-controlled vats to vinify the harvest cold. In 2015 his wife, Sophie Signolle, and their children, Nicolas and Diane, took over the running of the vineyard, and they have kept investing in cellar and vines.

The farming is organic: permanent grass between the rows, mechanical weeding under them, and the estate’s sheep keeping the vines through winter dormancy. The 12 hectares lie on sandy gravel over layers of clay, at 6,700 vines a hectare, about 20 years old, for 50,000 bottles. Château Vieux Landat is 60% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, aged in oak barrels, and a Cru Bourgeois in the classifications of 2020 and 2025.

Around it the family has built a small range with ideas of its own. Les Hauts du Vieux Landat comes from the highest part of the estate. Château Vieux Landat Saint-Estèphe, 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, comes from a parcel between the village and the port of Saint-Estèphe and is picked entirely by hand. Blanc Granit is a white made from the red grapes Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, vinified in a granite vat, 1,500 bottles a vintage, and Haut-Médoc Rocks is made with no added sulfites.

At a glance

Appellation

Haut-Médoc

Commune

Cissac-Médoc

Classification

Cru Bourgeois, 2020 and 2025

Direction

Sophie, Nicolas and Diane Signolle, since 2015

Vineyard

12 hectares; 6,700 vines a hectare, about 20 years old

Soil

Sandy gravel over layers of clay Terroir of Haut-Médoc →

Grapes

Château Vieux Landat: Merlot 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 35%, Petit Verdot 5%

Farming

Organic; permanent grass; sheep in winter

Cellar

1,200 square meters, temperature-controlled vats; oak barrels

Production

50,000 bottles

Wines

Château Vieux Landat; Les Hauts du Vieux Landat; Château Vieux Landat Saint-Estèphe; Blanc Granit; Haut-Médoc Rocks, without added sulfites