Château Tour Saint Fort

This estate of 14.23 hectares is located at Leyssac, at the place known as Laujac, south of the Pez sector, at Haut Baradiou, Carcasset, La Bardaque west of Calon Ségur, and at La Chapelle (Le Port).
It is mainly the result of the union of two neighbouring properties: on the one hand, part of château Saint-Estèphe (4.2 ha in production), founded in 1870 and listed in the Féret of 1908 (8th edition, which states that it won a silver medal at the Bordeaux International Maritime Exhibition in 1907), raised to the rank of Cru Bourgeois in 1932 and having a soil of fine, sandy gravel over a limestone subsoil known as Saint-Estèphe limestone dating from the Eocene; on the other hand La Tour du château Pineau Saint-Estèphe (7.5 ha), whose vines, grubbed up more than 60 years ago, were replanted in 1992. In the 18th century, the latter belonged, in equal shares, to the lord of Pez and to the Calon family, before being called Maison Cazeaux after the name of its new owner. At the end of the 18th century, it sold in Holland at the price of the 4th and 5th growths. After 1852, it took the rank of Bourgeois, which corresponded little to its original classification. At the end of the 19th century, it was even forgotten before being put back on track in 1900 by M. Pineau, who named it “Cru la Tour du château Pineau Saint-Estèphe” and won a first prize at the Liège exhibition in 1905. In 1922, it appeared again in the Féret. In 1932, it was confirmed as Cru Bourgeois under the name “Cru La Tour Pineau”. It has a subsoil almost similar to château Saint Estèphe in the northern part (with limestone closer to the surface) and a clay-sand south-western part.
In 1992, in addition to the replanting, major works were undertaken to create a vat room (stainless steel vats and a fermentation temperature control system), a barrel cellar, a tasting room, a reception room, a storage area and so on… by enlarging the farm that stood there, the facilities of Cru La Tour du château Pineau Saint Estèphe having been destroyed during the last war, with the exception of the vat room, which had been converted into an equipment garage.
With the help and advice of the oenologist M. Couasnon, the first harvest took place in 1992 with constant concern for quality (thinning, leaf removal, harvest by hand and by machine with sorting of the harvest…) and was selected by the Gault et Millau guide “Le Vin 1994” and chosen by the Revue des Vins de France (June 1993). It has since been regularly awarded medals in the various wine competitions (Concours Général Agricole in Paris, Concours des Grands Vins de France in Mâcon, Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, Decanter, Concours des Vignerons Indépendants) and selected in the Guide Hachette, Le Point, the Revue des Vins de France, Gilbert et Gaillard, Le Figaro and Parker.