Visiting Pessac-Léognan Vineyards

The Travel Pages spends a day visiting Pessac-Léognan Vineyards near Bordeaux: Château Haut-Bacalan, Château Luchey-Halde, and Château Smith Haut Lafitte.

Pessac-Léognan is perhaps not the most familiar of the Bordeaux wine regions, as this area southwest of the city was only created as a separate appellation in 1987. It covers an area of only 1580 hectares, and has 67 châteaux. In Bordeaux the word château means a wine estate with a cellar, but not always a castle. There are about 10,000 châteaux in the whole Bordeaux region.

Pessac-Léognan Grape Varieties

Pessac-Léognan is so close to Bordeaux that several of the vineyards are actually now in the city’s suburbs, surrounded by housing. The most common grapes here are Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon blanc, and Sémillon.

This area was once part of the Graves region, a more familiar name to most wine-lovers. The name comes from the gravelly nature of the soil, and there have been vineyards here since Roman times. One of the oldest vineyards in the whole of Bordeaux, along with Saint-Émilion, is here in Pessac-Léognan: Château Haut-Bacalan.

Château Haut-Bacalan

The château owes its name to a Monsieur Haut-Bacalan, who bought it from the Marquis de Montesquiou. The Marquis had acquired the estate in the 18th century, as it was very fashionable at the time to acquire land and plant vines. The soil here is especially gravelly, as it comes from the Garonne river which used to flow here till it changed its course over time.

In fact the vineyard is so close to Bordeaux that it is sometimes referred to as the city vineyard. The grapes here mature slightly early because of the extra warmth generated by the housing around… not that you would notice, when standing outside the châteaux and gazing over the 8 hectares of vines to the distant blue skies. https://www.gonet.fr/chateau-haut-bacalan

Château Luchey-Halde.

Another of the area’s oldest châteaux, but also one of the newest at the same time, is Château Luchey-Halde. Although there had been vines here for centuries, they were lost when the land was acquired by the army as a training ground. The vines were replanted in 1999 when the château was re-opened as an agricultural school.

It works as a commercial vineyard but also as a college, and the aim is to produce grapes of excellent quality, the best possible. This is done through picking the grapes by hand, and then having two more levels of quality control as the inferior grapes are weeded out leaving only perfect specimens. A visit here is a chance to learn all about the very latest in wine-making technology. http://luchey-halde.com/fr/

Château Smith Haut Lafitte

The Pessac-Léognan appellation also has one of the best-known names in wine-making, Château Smith Haut Lafitte. Not many vineyards are named after Scotsmen, but that’s where Mr Smith came from, though the vineyard goes back much further than his arrival on the scene in the 18th century, as the first vines were planted in 1365.

The vineyard is now owned by former French Olympic skiing champion Daniel Cathiard, a colleague of the legendary Jean-Claude Killy, and his wife Florence. They have maintained the château’s reputation as one of the finest vineyards in Bordeaux, so much so that its wines sell out within hours of their release onto the market. Visiting the châteaux is one of the easier ways to get your hands on some of the sought-after vintages, and taking a sip at some of them during the tastings is certainly an incentive to buy. https://www.smith-haut-lafitte.com