Château-de-Cruzeau Pessac-Léognan 2020

Château de Cruzeau, located in the southern part of the Pessac-Léognan appellation, in the Graves region, has a long history of winegrowing in an exceptional terroir. Jacques de Cruzeau, a lawyer at the Bordeaux Parliament, bought a house there and a few acres of vines in 1661. Little by little, he expanded the estate and transformed it into a sizeable one with vines planted on the best gravelly plots. The vineyard is precisely indicated on Belleyme’s famous map dated 1770. In 1841, the magazine “Le Producteur” designated Château de Cruzeau the best wine of the commune, in both the red and white categories. The wine was also much admired by Bordeaux brokers. The château was built in 1912.   

André Lurton acquired the estate in 1973 and immediately set about renovating it. He planted vines on beautiful south-facing gravelly rises. These now produce very elegant wines. The red wines are aged for a year in stave-wood oak barrels and the white wines (100% Sauvignon Blanc) are fermented and aged in barrel, but not for too long. The white here is precise, crisp and mouthwatering. Lemon, pomelo, white flowers, minerals, herbs, blanched almonds... all can be found in the bouquet and on the palate. Serve with white fishes, salmon, raw oysters, Comté cheese & dijon mustard, or white meat dishes.   

The Pessac-Léognan appellation is a very old winegrowing area, the cradle of great wines: "the Graves de Bordeaux", which used to correspond to the provostal suburb of the city. The first vines in Bordeaux were certainly planted in the area immediately around the city, in very ancient times. In the 18th century, this was also the birthplace of "New French Claret", at Château Haut-Brion in the parish of Pessac, classified a 1st Great Growth in 1855. This famous estate is the uncontested leader among the 16 Graves Classified Growths. These wines were internationally renowned as early as the Middle Ages, when Aquitaine was under English rule, and they have maintained their reputation until the present day.

However, while the origins of these vineyards are very ancient, paradoxically, Pessac-Léognan is the most recent of the Bordeaux appellations. After several years of constant effort, led by André Lurton , President of the Syndicat Viticole des Graves du Nord at the time, its specific qualities were finally recognized by an official decree setting up the appellation on 9 September 1987. The appellation now covers almost 1,700 hectares of vineyards in 10 municipalities close to the city: Cadaujac, Canéjan, Gradignan, Léognan, Martillac, Mérignac, Pessac, Saint-Médard-d’Eyrans, Talence, and Villenave d’Ornon. It includes 75 châteaux and estates producing a total of approximately 9 million bottles per year: 80 % red and 20 % white wines. The terroir is outstanding, both in terms of climate and soil. And Pessac-Léognan was a favorite appellation of Bordeaux collector, Thomas Jefferson.