Château Beychevelle

Beychevelle has a fine and rich history, having always been a land of powerful men. As early as the Middle Ages, under the Counts of Foix-Candale, its wine left from the port at the foot of the garden.
Bishop François de Foix-Candale had a first château built in 1565. He was followed by Jean-Louis de Nogaret de la Valette, 1st Duke of Épernon and Grand Admiral of France, then his son Bernard, who had the central part of the château built in 1644, and then Henri de Foix-Candale. In the 18th century, the estate belonged successively to Jean-Baptiste d’Abadie, President of the Parlement of Bordeaux, to the Brassier family, to whom we owe the partial reconstruction of the château and its definitive appearance, and finally to the shipowner Jacques Conte. The 19th century was marked by the reconquest of quality and renown thanks to Pierre-François Guestier, Bordeaux négociant and mayor of Saint-Julien, and to Armand Heine, cousin of the German poet Heinrich Heine, and his wife Marie-Amélie Kohn, who restored the great vineyard. Three generations of the Achille-Fould family, ministers and deputies, then succeeded one another at the head of Beychevelle for nearly a century until its purchase in 1986 by the GMF, which joined forces in 1989 with the Japanese group Suntory to create the company Grands Millésimes de France, the current owner. In 2011, the torch was taken up by the association of Suntory with the Bordeaux group Castel.
According to legend, ships passing in front of the château would lower their sails in homage to the all-powerful Duke of Épernon, Grand Admiral of France, hence the name Beychevelle (baisse-voile, “lower the sail”) and the origin of the château’s coat of arms.
At Château Beychevelle, an average production of 390 barrels is harvested of a wine full of perfume and delicacy, which enjoys a great reputation abroad as well as in France.