Château Suduiraut

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The Château Suduiraut winery is located in the south of the municipality of Preignac , part of the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Sauternes in the Bordeaux wine-growing region . In the Bordeaux wine classification of 1855 , it was classified as "Premier Cru Classé". The estate has almost 200 hectares of land, 92 hectares of which are devoted to viticulture . The vineyards are not far from the famous Château d'Yquem .

The Sémillon grape variety accounts for the largest share with a planted area of ​​90 percent. In addition, 10% Sauvignon Blanc is added. The average age of the vines is 25 years and the forest density is 7,000 vines / hectare. The harvest is carried out by hand in several harvest aisles in order to select the noble rotten berries. After the developing wine has reached an alcohol content of 13-14 percent through alcoholic fermentation , it is pumped into stainless steel tanks and cooled down to 7 ° C within four to five days. The wine is aged in barriques for 18–24 months after sulphurisation . From Grand Vin nearly 100,000 bottles are filled annually. No Grand Vin was bottled in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 vintages because the result did not meet the quality requirements and an artificial concentration of the wine by means of cryo-extraction does not correspond to the quality philosophy.

The second wine is called Castelnau de Suduiraut . The estate also markets a dry white wine called S de Suduiraut . The berries for the dry white wine are collected during the first three harvesting processes and represent around 10% of the estate's total wine production. A cuvée in which the berries are picked individually is called crème de tête. This has been produced twice so far.

In 2008, Château Suduiraut and 16 other Bordeaux wineries , including such well-known as Château d'Yquem , Château Olivier and Château La Tour Blanche , joined forces in a joint project. Its purpose is to grow its own clones of the Sémillon grape variety when the vineyards become scarcer.

history

The history of the winery begins in 1592 when Léonard de Suduiraut, a member of the Parlement of Bordeaux, married Nicole d'Allard. Nicole was the sole heir to the land on which the current estate was built. For almost 50 years, the de Suduiraut family was able to develop the estate undisturbed. At the time of the Fronde , however, the family fell out with the loyal Bernard de Nogaret de La Valette d'Épernon . As a result, the estate was looted and burned between 1648 and 1649. Léonard's grandson, Count Blaise de Suduiraut, built one of the most stately manor houses in Bordeaux between 1665 and 1675 and had the gardens laid out by André Le Nôtre .

After the death of Blaise de Suduiraut, who was married to Gabrielle Angélique de Pontac, the property went first to his daughter Marie-Anne and later to Marie-Anne's nephew, Joseph du Roy (son of Cathérine de Suduiraut and Jean du Roy ). Joseph renamed the estate Ancien Cru du Roy .

After Joseph's death, the property first went to his son Jean and later to Louis-Guillaume du Roy. Whose last name was also often written Duroi or Duroy. His marriage to Marie-Rose was apparently childless, which she bequeathed the estate to the employee Nicolas Edme Guillot after the death of Louis-Guillaume. Under his work, the estate took off a great deal. In the family archives of the Guillot de Suduiraut family, there is still correspondence between Nicolas and his nephew Dominique Doutreleau, who established himself as a wine merchant in Guadeloupe and imported Suduiraut wines. Nicolas Edme Guillot bought the neighborhood estate of Castelnau in 1831 and thus expanded his property considerably. The name of the second wine on the estate is a reminder of this time.

When the classification of Bordeaux wineries was published in 1855, the management of the estate was the responsibility of Nicolas Edme's sons. In 1875 they sold the estate to the industrialist Henri-Ferdinand Rabourdin (1812–1898), who had made his fortune in the paper industry. Barely 4 years later, however, he bequeathed the estate to his daughter Lucie, who was married to Charles Émile Antoine Petit de Forest.

It was up to the couple to lead the winery through the difficult time of the phylloxera disaster and the mildew infestation . In the fight against phylloxera, Petit de Forest introduced the technique of grafting vines onto resistant rootstock very early on . After the death of Charles Émile Antoine in 1899, his wife Lucie managed the winery until 1929. After her death, the property passed to her daughter Isabelle Petit de Forest. However, Isabelle and her husband Alfred de Girodon-Pralong did not succeed in maintaining the quality level of the wines. In addition, the sweet wines were more and more replaced by the dry wines on the market. The winery therefore had to be sold to the industrialist Leopold-François Fonquernie in 1940 after an unsuccessful attempt with dry wines. Fonquernie and his cellar master Pierre Pascaud were able to consolidate the reputation of the estate thanks to extensive investments in the vineyard and cellar. After Léopold's death, his daughters took over the management of the estate, continued to work with Pierre Pascaud, and in 1978 gave him the management of day-to-day business. In 1992, however, the family separated from Château Suduiraut and sold it to the insurance group AXA Millésime. AXA had already started investing in Bordeaux in the 1980s. In addition to Suduiraut, Château Pichon-Longueville-Baron and Château Lynch-Bages were already part of the portfolio.

Today, day-to-day business is headed by Christian Seely while Pierre Montégut is the technical manager.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jane Anson: Bordeaux: Semillon shortage threatens future vintages. ( Memento of April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Decanter.com, April 8, 2008.