Château Vray Croix de Gay

The château

The name first appears in Édouard Féret’s survey of the wines of Saint-Émilion and the Libourne district in 1908. There were then 2 wines called Croix de Gay: one of 12 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), owned by the mayor of Pomerol, and one of 5, owned by Charles Pommier, a baker. After a quarrel the mayor registered the name Croix de Gay and offered to buy the baker’s parcels, so that there would not be 2 wines under one name. Pommier refused. The old cross that had shown pilgrims the way to Compostela since the 13th century stood at the corner of his parcel, so he registered his wine as Vraye Croix de Gay, the true cross, in the old spelling, and the edition of 1922 of Bordeaux et ses vins prints it so, under C. Pommier, at 5 tonneaux; the final e was dropped later. That is why Château Croix de Gay and Vray Croix de Gay still stand side by side on the Pomerol plateau, a village tale of 2 men who would not give way.

Vray Croix de Gay is a small vineyard: 3.67 hectares of Pomerol. It belonged to Artémis Domaines, the wine company of François Pinault, until September 2020, when it changed hands in a set of 3: Les Terroirs de Suravenir, a company of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa banking group, bought it together with Château Siaurac in Lalande-de-Pomerol and Château Le Prieuré in Saint-Émilion. The teams stayed, and Vincent Millet, director of Château Calon Ségur, took charge of all 3 properties. The second wine is L’Enchanteur de Vray Croix de Gay.

The house on the parcel has been entirely rebuilt, with new cellars, a barrel room and a reception room, and 2025 was the first vintage made wholly on site. The vat room, as small as a doll’s house, mirrors the cellars built for Calon Ségur and then for Le Prieuré, with the same gentle methods. The Merlot comes from the largest parcel, between Lafleur and La Fleur-Pétrus, and the Cabernet Franc from rows that touch Le Pin, Trotanoy and La Violette.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol Terroir of Pomerol →

Commune

Pomerol

Classification

No classification

Owner

Les Terroirs de Suravenir, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, since September 2020

Direction

Vincent Millet

Vineyard

3.67 hectares, on the Pomerol plateau

Cellar

Rebuilt on the parcel; 2025 the first vintage made wholly on site

Wines

Château Vray Croix de Gay; L’Enchanteur de Vray Croix de Gay

The house

Also Château Siaurac, Lalande-de-Pomerol, and Château Le Prieuré, Saint-Émilion

In history

2 Croix de Gay in Féret in 1908, of 12 and 5 tonneaux; Vraye-Croix-de-Gay, under C. Pommier, in 1922