Château Ferran

The estate takes its name from the man who owned it during the 18th century, Robert de Ferran, barrister at the court of the Parlement de Bordeaux.
Together with the fortified house of Rochemorin and the property of Lartigue, brought as a dowry in 1715 by Jeanne de Lartigue, it was part of the lordship of Martillac, as evidenced by a deed of acknowledgement in favour of Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, who acknowledges having received “this land in censive… and towards him charged with all cens, rents and seigneurial duties.”
Thus the author of L’Esprit des Lois combined these two titles of lord of Martillac and baron of La Brède. Montesquieu proved as skilled a winegrower as he was an excellent philosopher, for he devoted himself particularly to cultivating his vineyard on the sunny hillsides of his Martillac lands.
When the dismemberment of the Lartigue estate took place, the vineyard was attached to that of Ferran, the neighbouring estate.
In 1764, to avoid any fraud or mixing with other wines, M. de Tourny, governor of Guienne, decreed by decree that casks of the privileged wines of the Graves be branded with a hot iron, as soon as they left the owner’s cellars, with the name of the cru and the place, for about ten parishes neighbouring Bordeaux, including Martillac.
In the cellars of Ferran, a branding iron is still preserved bearing the words: “Château Ferran – premières Graves – Martillac”.
Of the important vineyard of the lordship of Montesquieu, which once carpeted the smiling hillsides of Martillac, there remains notably “Ferran”, which appeared in 1765 on the map by Belleyme, geographer to the king.
For more than a century, the Ferran estate has belonged to the same family, which devotes all its care to the cultivation of the vineyard. In 1935, the Société d’Agriculture de la Gironde awarded this estate the Grand Diplôme d’Honneur for the upkeep of its vineyard, which produces an aromatic and unctuous dry white wine and a fleshy, complex red wine. The numerous works to restructure the vineyard and renovate the cellar and vat room, undertaken gradually in recent years on the recommendations of Professor Denis Dubourdieu and Christophe Ollivier, consultant oenologists to the property, have already been rewarded with several citations and medals in various guides, magazines and professional competitions.
Philippe and Ghislaine Lacoste, descendants of the Beraud-Sudreau family, have run this estate since 1999.