Château Haut-Ballet

Overlooking the Dordogne, château Haut-Ballet raises its twelve hectares to 80 metres in altitude. Perched on a hillock that shelters the stone quarries of Saint-Michel-de-Fronsac, this property of sober 17th-century architecture is complemented by a cellar of the same period. Château Haut-Ballet is crossed by a Roman road that bears witness to its use since the earliest antiquity.
Bought by Olivier Decelle in 2002, this 12-hectare property in a single block overlooking the Dordogne enjoys exceptional sunshine and panorama. Set on the edge of the limestone plateau, the hillocks covered with 30 cm of clay and Asteries limestone bear an uncanny resemblance to the types of limestone close to the Saint-Émilion hillside. Indeed in Saint-Émilion, the four premiers crus classés are established on this same Asteries limestone.
Rich in its Tertiary formation, this carbonate rock, at once soft and friable, gives rise to soils of varied textures, of which Asteries limestone (Stampian) marks the greatest terroirs. At château Haut-Ballet, the limestone plateau on the heights gives the property’s wines invaluable qualities of tension, salinity and minerality.