Château Dauzac

Château Dauzac, Cru Classé in 1855, has the immense privilege of having a single vineyard of 45 hectares, 42 hectares in the Margaux appellation and 3 hectares in the Haut-Médoc appellation. Protected from the ocean winds by a hundred hectares of surrounding forest, this unique terroir has enabled the development of precision viticulture, enhancing the exceptional characteristics of this Grand Cru Classé. Throughout its history, Dauzac has been owned by families of exceptional political influence and economic power. In 1685, the Bordeaux merchant Pierre Drouillard, Treasurer of France, made Dauzac one of the finest wine estates in the Médoc. In 1700, his grandson, Jean Baptiste Lynch, mayor of Bordeaux under Napoleon and then Peer of France under Louis XVIII, took Dauzac through the various regimes, always in first place. Then in 1855, for two decades, the Wiebroocks established Dauzac definitively among the aristocracy of Médoc wines and won it recognition in that year’s classification. It was in 1863 that the Johnstons, a powerful family who also owned Ducru-Beaucaillou, stepped in and gave it its first yellow label. In 1939, Mr Bernat, the owner of Glacières Bernat, bought Dauzac. In order to regulate the temperature of the vats, he came up with the idea of putting blocks of ice in them during fermentation, thus taking the first steps towards temperature control. After the Miailhe and Chatellier families passed away, MAIF took over the château in 1988. MAIF formed a partnership with Vignobles André Lurton in 1992. André Lurton spotted an exceptional terroir and quickly set about extracting the very best from it. In 2004, under his impetus, a new gravity-fed winery was built, and in 2005 his daughter, Christine Lurton- de Caix, succeeded him. She will continue to improve the quality of Dauzac wines and to promote them around the world. Dauzac returned to the Bordeaux marketplace at the 2012 primeurs. In 2013, MAIF & Vignobles André Lurton set out an ambitious strategic plan to take this exceptional wine to the next level, appointing Laurent Fortin as Managing Director of Dauzac. Like the finest Médoc wines, the best terroirs must “look to the Gironde”. Dauzac, located 350 metres from the estuary, between Labarde and Macau, confirms this rule. Dauzac’s terroir is composed, as it should be, of a deep hillside of gravel, in a geological vein unique to the château. These layers of gravel of varying thickness, the remains of ancient alluvial terraces, rest on a subsoil of gravel and clay. The secret, of course, is to understand and make the best use of this terroir in its various parcels and according to the characteristics of the vintage.