Château Quintus, is a wine estate of 15 ha located in

Saint-Émilion Saint-Émilion (; Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. In 2016, it had a population of 1,938. In the heart of the country of ''Libournais'' (the area around Libourne), in ...

, in the

AOC Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of ...

of the same name. Formerly named ''Château Tertre Daugay'', a Classified Growth of Saint-Émilion, it is the property of Quintus SAS, a subsidiary of

Domaine Clarence Dillon Domaine Clarence Dillon is a wine company run by a family that owns estates such as Château Haut-Brion (a 1855 Premier Grand Cru Classé), Château La Mission Haut-Brion (Grand Cru Classé de Graves), Château Quintus (Saint-Emilion Grand Cru) an ...

SAS. From the 2011 vintage, the grand vin is called Château Quintus and the second wine, Le Dragon de Quintus.

History

During the summer 2011, Château Quintus was purchased by

. Domaine Clarence Dillon named its new property after the Gallo-Roman tradition of naming their fifth child

Quintus Quintus is a male given name derived from '' Quintus'', a common Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is an English masculine given name and ...

. For almost a century, the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

reference book Cocks and Feret mentioned the property as a

First Growth First Growth (french: Premier Cru) status is a classification of wines primarily from the Bordeaux region of France. The best of the best wines were assigned the highest rank of Premier Cru; only five wines, Château Lafite Rothschild, Châtea ...

of Saint-Emilion. The property also received a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1867. The first known owner of Château Quintus was Pierre-Philippe Alezais, who belonged to a wealthy family in Saint-Emilion. After the French Revolution, his descendant Philippe Alezais developed the vineyard and brought the estate to the size of today. In the late 19th century, the Alezais family sold the estate to Eugène Robin, banker and also owner of chateau L'Ermitage in Libourne. In the 1930s, when Saint-Emilion was suffering from the international economic crisis, Léon Galhaud, owner of several Saint-Emilion properties, bought Château Quintus. His son, Jean-Jacques, ran into financial problems in 1967 and finally sold the estate in 1978 to Count Leo de Malet Roquefort. Quintus was run by the Malet Roquefort family for 30 years until the Dillon family bought the estate in 2011. In 2013, the Dillon family acquired Château L'Arrosée next to Château Quintus and included the vineyard in the one of Château Quintus.

Vineyard

The property is located on a high promontory which is the end of the plateau of Saint-Emilion. The terroir includes various slopes, soils and orientation. It is planted with merlot and cabernet-franc. In “Les Grands vins de Gironde”, FG Dumas wrote in 1899: “One cannot imagine a more beautiful situation for an estate, or one more favourable for the production of a First Growth wine. ��Thanks to the excellent vinification practices undertaken at this estate, the wine produced here reflects great body, ripeness and an armature that exemplify the great wines of Saint-Emilion.” Since the purchase of the estate, Domaine Clarence Dillon implemented some improvements: sorting of the grapes during the harvest, in-depth research for a new style of wine during the blending process.

Wines

Château Quintus is the grand vin. 2011 is the first vintage entirely produced by

. It is a blend of 51%

Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the ...

and 49%

Cabernet Franc Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, as in the Loire's Chinon. In addition to being us ...

. Le Dragon of Quintus is the

second wine Second wine or second label ( French: ''Second vin'') is a term commonly associated with Bordeaux wine to refer to a second label wine made from '' cuvee'' not selected for use in the ''Grand vin'' or first label. In some cases a third wine or e ...

. It is a blend of 54% Merlot and 46% Cabernet Franc. Because of its selection criteria, only 65 barrels of 2011 Château Quintus (1,625 cases) and 66 of 2011 Le Dragon de Quintus (1,650 cases) are available. On May 15, 2011, Domaine Clarence Dillon released for the en-primeur 1,000 cases of Château Quintus and 1,000 cases of Le Dragon de Quintus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintus, Chateau Bordeaux wine producers