Château Quintus

In June 2011, the family company Domaine Clarence Dillon, owner of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, acquired a beautiful property in Saint-Émilion, now renamed Château Quintus. In October 2013, Château Quintus in turn acquired the neighbouring property, Château L’Arrosée, and these two exceptional estates were brought together to produce one of Saint-Émilion’s very first wines. “By uniting these two exceptional estates, we are enabling our team to produce one of Saint-Émilion’s greatest wines. This coming together of equals will demonstrate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. “I am convinced that this vineyard will soon rival its elders at Domaine Clarence Dillon as one of the region’s finest wines. Prince Robert de Luxembourg (Chairman, Quintus SAS) The number 5 (V) characterises this estate, with its hillsides and plots of land facing the four cardinal points, and inclined towards the sky to which the winegrowers turn daily to learn the omens. The Gallo-Romans, who created the vineyards of Saint-Émilion, used to name their 5th child Quintus (fifth). Domaine Clarence Dillon has therefore decided to pay tribute to its glorious predecessors by renaming the wine Château Quintus. This wine naturally takes its place alongside the great red and white wines of Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion, and thus becomes the 5th child of this illustrious family. An ancient watchtower and, going further back in history, during the Celtic period, an Oppidum (or fortification) erected on the plateau overlooking Saint-Émilion, almost certainly on the site of Quintus, were the inspiration for the name of the estate’s second wine, Le Dragon de Quintus; a mythical creature that watches over and protects its treasure: a fabulous terroir. Château Quintus lies at the south-western end of the Saint-Émilion plateau. The neighbouring properties on this southern slope – undoubtedly the best exposure on the plateau – are five of Saint-Émilion’s most renowned châteaux. The history of Quintus is as old as that of Saint-Émilion. For almost a century, “Bordeaux et ses Vins” systematically referred to both estates as Premier Cru de Saint-Émilion. The two estates now united were among the jewels in the appellation’s crown, helping Saint-Émilion to win a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1867. Perched on a limestone promontory (tertre) 62 metres above sea level, overlooking the entire Dordogne valley, Château Quintus’s vines stretch across a remarkable landscape. Quintus boasts exceptional biodiversity, which will be maintained and developed, such as the oak woods and groves of hornbeam, acacia and willow that embellish the magnificent parkland surrounding the estate. The main feature of the soil is a succession of limestone strata on all the south-facing slopes of the plateau. To the north of the property, the limestone is replaced by a mixture of clay and limestone, with gravel plunging towards the south. The originality of this exceptional terroir lies in its diversity of soils, slopes and orientations. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that the two crus, now united under the name Château Quintus, were listed by the newspaper Le Producteur in 1841 as among the top ten Saint-Émilion wines. A bottle has been specially designed and created for Quintus, inspired by the old Château Haut-Brion bottles dating from the mid-nineteenth century. Like their ancestors, these bottles feature an engraved badge on the neck.