Barton & Guestier

The house

Thomas Barton left County Fermanagh for Bordeaux in 1725 and set up as a wine merchant. He did well in the great wines: when Lafite sold its crops of 1749 and 1750, the usual buyer was the house of Barton. In the Revolution, on October 14, 1793, his grandson Hugh and Hugh’s wife, Anna, were arrested and jailed with other British subjects in Bordeaux. Hugh’s father, William, died on October 23, before his son could say goodbye. Freed on December 21, the couple left for England and Ireland. Hugh, who kept his ties with Bordeaux, went into partnership with Daniel Guestier, and from 1802 the house carried the 2 names.

Then the partners bought land as well as wine. Daniel Guestier took Château Batailley in 1816 and enlarged its vineyard. He was also one of the men who started steam navigation on the Garonne and one of the founders of the Banque de Bordeaux, and he presided over the commercial court. His son Pierre-François Guestier bought Beychevelle in 1825, was elected deputy for Lesparre, in the Médoc, in 1834, and was made a peer of France in 1845. Hugh Barton bought Langoa in 1821 and, in 1826, one quarter of the old Léoville estate, which became Léoville Barton. In 10 years the 2 families had gathered 4 estates that the Classification of 1855 would rank.

The house itself bought by the crop. Charles Cocks, the Englishman whose guide of 1846 grew into the directory of the Bordeaux trade, recorded the deal: from 1844 the whole crop of Château Latour went to Barton & Guestier, on a lease of 10 years. In 1850 he listed the house among the 5 that shared Château Margaux, one fifth each, on another lease of 10 years. When the Lafite crop of 1865 was sold in 1866, the house was one of its 6 buyers. A book on the classed growths of the Médoc printed in London in 1920 still names it among the houses that shared the Lafite vintages of 1917, 1918 and 1919.

Seagram took a half share in 1954 and later the whole house, which then passed to Diageo; the Castel group bought it in July 2010. Barton & Guestier bought Château Magnol, in Blanquefort, in 1969, and works from there, among vines that are a Cru Bourgeois Supérieur. In June 2025 it marked its 300th year with a dinner at the Palais de la Bourse, the old exchange building on the Bordeaux quays. Through Seagram, Diageo and Castel, the 2 names of 1802 have stayed on the label.

At a glance

Kind

Négociant

Based in

Blanquefort, at Château Magnol

Founded

1725, by Thomas Barton; Barton & Guestier from 1802

Owner

Castel group, since July 2010

Direction

Philippe Marion, managing director

Château

Magnol, owned since 1969

In the record

The whole Latour crop from 1844, for 10 years; one fifth of Margaux, 1850; Lafite 1865; Lafite 1917 to 1919