Château Suau is a French

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

located south of the village of Capian in the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

area. It sits at the highest point of the

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

-côtes-de- Bordeaux appellation. Château Suau produces

organic wine Organic wine is wine made from grapes grown in accordance with the principles of organic farming, which exclude the use of artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. The legal definition of organic wine varies from ...

History

According to legends, Château Suau began as a hunting lodge in the 16th century . At the time, it belonged to

Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554–1642), created Duke of Épernon, was a powerful member of the French nobility at the turn of the 17th century. He was deeply involved in plots and politics throughout his life. Life He was born at C ...

, Duke of Épernon. It was not until 1637 that it was restored and named in honor of the new owners: the Suau family. The estate was bought in 1687 by a wine merchant named Clement Popp of Bordeaux described as the Lord of Suau. At one point in its history the estate belonged to Franco-Columbus Fenwick,

U.S The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

consul in

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

. In 1857, the domain passed into the hands of Jean Guénant, Receiver general of the island

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

who, with the help of his son, had to fight the

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

epidemic of 1870, introducing the first vine grafts. The estate was sold and resold several times before being acquired in 1986 by the current owner: the Bonnet family.

Wine and grapes

Facing south-southeast, this

Entre-Deux-Mers Entre-Deux-Mers is a French region, well known as a Bordeaux wine growing region. The geographical area is situated between the rivers Garonne and Dordogne, and is bounded in the east by the border of the Gironde department and in the west by ...

vineyard has a

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

consisting mainly of clay and gravel.
It is planted with

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 , the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color ...

51%,

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...

28%,

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 (wine), Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone, as in the Loire (wine), Loire's C ...

4% and

Malbec Malbec () is a purple grape variety used in making red wine. The grapes tend to have an inky dark color and robust tannins, and are known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux wine. In France, plantations of Malbec are ...

3% grapes for the reds.

Sauvignon blanc Sauvignon blanc () is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the city of Bordeaux in France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an ind ...

8%,

Sauvignon gris Sauvignon gris () is a pink-colored wine grape that is a clonal mutation of Sauvignon blanc. The grape is primarily found in Bordeaux and Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southe ...

1% and

Sémillon Sémillon () is a golden-skinned grape used to make dry and sweet white wines, mostly in French wine, France and Australian wine, Australia. Its thin skin and susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea, botrytis make it dominate the sweet wine region S ...

5% for the whites.
The planting density is 5000 plants / ha for white vines and 7000 vines / ha for red vines.
In 2008, the estate started progressively to convert into

organic farming Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...

. The conversion was completed in 2012 and since 2014, the entire production is

organic wines Organic wine is wine made from grapes grown in accordance with the principles of organic farming, which exclude the use of artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides. The legal definition of organic wine varies from ...

. The first certified organic wine was the Château Maubert 2011 (Cadillac- AOC- Côtes-de-Bordeaux). Each year, the estate produces a Château Suau Rouge AOC - Côte-de-Bordeaux -, a Château Rouge AOC - Côte Maubert Bordeaux-. As well as the Château Suau Bordeaux AOC - Bordeaux Blanc Sec- and the Château Suau Rosé. Château Suau, Red Artolie Cadillac AOC - Côtes-de-Bordeaux-, Château Suau Red Cadillac, AOC- Cadillac Côtes-de-Bordeaux- and Château Suau Sweet White Cadillac AOC, (

Dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a mea ...

s), are produced only when the quality of the grapes is good enough to achieve these

cuvée ''Cuvée''Or Cuvee on some English-language labels. () is a French wine term that derives from ''cuve'', meaning vat or tank.J. Robinson (ed), ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'', Third Edition, p. 218, Oxford University Press 2006, winepros.com. ...

s. In 2013, Château Suau joined the first Bordeaux wines association for an

Environmental management system An environmental management system (EMS) is "a system which integrates policy, procedures and processes for training of personnel, monitoring, summarizing, and reporting of specialized environmental performance information to internal and external ...

(EMS) and is Ecovert and

ISO 14001 The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for Natural environment, environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations ...

certified.

Bibliography

* GUILLON Edouard - ''Historic Castles and wine of the Gironde - Bordeaux'': Coderc, and Degréteau Poujol. 1866-1869, Vol 4, p. 393. * Manthe René, ''The Barony of Capian and the Priory of Artolée'' - historical and archaeological Notes - Bordeaux Archaeological Society 1892 - t XVII, p. 55 - 57 *

Cocks & Féret ''Cocks & Féret'', or simply ''Féret'', is the colloquial name of a Bordeaux wine directory originally created by Charles Cocks and Michel-Édouard Féret in 1846, which was published under the name ''Bordeaux, its Wines and the Claret Country'' ...

: . * Charles Cocks, Edouard Feret: ''Bordeaux et ses vins'', G. Masson, 1922, (9th edition), 1886,Google book
Charles Cocks, Edouard Feret, G. Masson, 1886
/ref> and 3rd edition,1874.

References

External links

Château Suau official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau Suau (Capian) Bordeaux wine producers Châteaux in Gironde Cultural heritage of France French wine AOCs Organic farming in France

History

Wine and grapes

Bibliography

See also

References

External links