Domaine de Grandmaison

Mentioned for over a century in the editions of “Bordeaux et ses Vins”, the Domaine de Grandmaison is set in the heart of the oldest vineyards of the commune of Léognan: adjoining Château Carbonnieux, it is also the immediate neighbour of Châteaux La Louvière and Olivier.
In 1939 François Bouquier acquired this historic estate, which appears on the Belleyme map (1763) under the name Barreyre. His son Jean took over from him. Despite particularly difficult years (the frost of 1956, the unfavourable economic climate of the 1960s), he managed to rebuild the vineyard completely. Today, with the cellars and vat rooms entirely renovated, Jean Bouquier works with his son François, and together they manage the estate from vineyard to sales.
On the edge of the Eau Blanche stream, its terroir consists of gravelly clays and gravel laid on a limestone subsoil. The vineyard is thus set on a free-draining soil (the estate’s well only finds water at a depth of 12 metres), never suffering from excess humidity or drought, which is a decisive factor of quality for growing vines.
Vinification, combining a taste for tradition with the efficiency of modern techniques, receives particularly attentive care: temperature control, careful pumping over, prolonged maceration and ageing — for 80% of the production — in oak casks renewed by a third each year, allow the making of well-bred wines.
The red wines, with a deep and warm colour, are well balanced. Tannic, nervy and supple at once, they are fruity and full of sap. For the white wines, in order to release the aromas, the musts are cold-settled, then, for 30%, vinified in new barrels. Brilliant, lively and very fruity, they are very long on the palate, fresh and harmonious.
Wines for laying down, the wines of Grandmaison, red or white, always enhance a great variety of dishes most agreeably. Restaurateurs in France and many other places are not mistaken.