Château Couhins-Lurton

Châteaux Couhins and Couhins-Lurton were a single estate until they were separated in 1979. The origins of this cru are very ancient, and as early as 1760 the Belleyme map showed an important vineyard here.
Known at the end of the 17th century as the “Bourdieu de la Gravette”, the Couhins estate remained for more than a century in the hands of the Banchereau family, highly renowned Bordeaux notaries, who shaped the main characteristics of the place and contributed to the promotion of its wines.
J.-B. Seres owned it in 1874. His daughter, who had married Victor Hanappier, head of one of the most important négociant houses in Bordeaux, succeeded him and made some improvements to the estate, notably the creation of a very beautiful park around the château. To design it, she called on a very fashionable landscape architect of the late 19th century: Louis Le Breton, to whom we also owe the park of Château de Bourran in Mérignac, as well as the Jardin des Plantes of the town of Montauban. Georges Hanappier, their son, inherited it in 1920. He died without direct descendants. The estate then passed to his nephew and niece, Michel Hanappier and his sister Eliane, wife of Gasqueton. After the Second World War, the Gasquetons acquired the very pretty château and the lands of “Pont de Langon”, which they attached to Château Couhins, thus creating a vast estate whose area then exceeded 60 hectares. But this vineyard was gradually neglected by its owners in favour of their other Médoc crus. In the 1960s, Mme Gasqueton went so far as to decide to have it uprooted when André Lurton took it on a tenant-farming lease in 1967.
Bought by the SAFER in 1968, the estate was divided again and the two châteaux, Couhins and Pont de Langon, were sold separately. The Institut national de la recherche agronomique bought the lands of Couhins, while the château was sold to a private individual. The lease granted by Mme Gasqueton to André Lurton was renewed by the INRA until 1979.
In the meantime, André Lurton bought from the INRA a small part of the estate, which he runs today under the name “Couhins-Lurton” with the title of Cru Classé de Graves (the great quality of its white wines having been recognised at the Graves classification of 1953).
In 1992, he bought back the magnificent château and the cellars. The latter are now completely renovated. This fine cru once again has the prestigious features of which it was for a time deprived.
Since 1987, André Lurton had been farming a very fine 17 ha plot of gravel in the neighbouring commune of Martillac, planted with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. He therefore decided to attach it to Couhins, enabling this cru to return to a red wine production that had been abandoned, nearly a century ago, in favour of white. It should be noted that only the white is classified, and it forms a 6-hectare block of Sauvignon around the château.