Chateau Laroque has a very long track record and history in the Saint Emilion appellation. Chateau Laroque dates back to the 12th century. In fact, a small remnant remains of the original tower built in the 12th century. The estate as we know it today, with its magnificent, chateau, was constructed in the 17th century by Marquis de Rochefort-Lavie.

The property remained in the hands of the same family until the depression struck in 1929. Like many families and companies at the time, the owners did not have the funds to maintain the estate and the vineyards. Wine ceased to be produced at Chateau Laroque for several years.

The modern era for Chateau Laroque starts in 1935, when the property was purchased by the Beaumartin family from the descendants of the Marquis de Rochefort-Lavie.

In 1962, the vineyards of Chateau Laroque were completely replanted and the wine making facilities were updated as well. The situation remained about the same for close to 50 years.

By that time, the chateau was in need of repairs, the cellars demanded updating and the vineyards required extensive replanting. Positive changes began taking place starting with the 2015 vintage as you will see. Today, Chateau Laroque is probably better known for the architecturally stunning, chateau and its perfectly manicured gardens.

It truly is one of the most beautiful structures in the Right Bank. However, with all the improves taking place here, and their willingness to spend the funds needed to turn things around, you can expect things to begin to change rapidly.


https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/

Château de Laroque

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Château de Lussac (Lussac-Saint Emilion) is a 30-hectare vineyard located in the village of Lussac, Gironde, in the Lussac-Saint-Emilion Bordeaux's wine appellation. This appellation is one of the so-called satellite appellations of Saint-Émilion.
In the heart of the village, Château de Lussac is easily visible by its distinctive architecture. The main building was built in 1876 by Gascon Montouroy. This vintner and vine grower transmitted the property to his son-in-law, Marquis de Sercey. The property remained in this family until the 1980s when Mr. Olivier Roussel repurchased it and produced wines for about 15 years.
In 2000, Griet and Hervé Laviale took over the property. They're also the owners of Château Franc Mayne.
The 30 hectares (74 acres) of average 30 years old vines are planted on the limestone plateau, naturally well drained and exposed. There are 77% Merlot and 23% Cabernet Franc in the vineyards.

Château de Lussac

The Château de Montaigne is a castle mansion situated on the borders of Périgord and Bordelais, near Bergerac and Saint-Émilion, in the small commune of Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne in the Dordogne département of France. The structure originated in the 14th century and was the family residence of the Renaissance philosopher and thinker Michel de Montaigne.
History
Built in the heart of a majestic park, whose layout was designed by the philosopher himself, the residence was acquired in 1477 by the great-grandfather of Michel, Ramon Eyquem, a Bordeaux trader, who thus acquired the hereditary title of Seigneur de Montaigne ("Lord of Montaigne").
Michel's father, Pierre Eyquem, settled in the castle with his family, and there Michel spent a studious childhood—he is said to have spoken Latin until the age of six—before leaving to continue his studies in French at the college of Guienne in Bordeaux.
In 1584, Montaigne entertained in his castle the king of Navarre, Henri de Bourbon, the future Henry IV, and thus became a close royal friend at the same time as Condé, de Rohan and Turenne. Henry IV had already named him gentleman of the chamber (French: gentilhomme de sa chambre) by a patent letter of 1577.
From 1571 until his death in 1592, Michel de Montaigne wrote his famous Essays (French: Essais), major works of humanism of the renaissance, and fruits of a lifetime of reflection and reading.
After Montaigne's death, his widow Françoise de La Chassaigne continued to reside in the castle. She entertained there Marie de Gournay, whom he had befriended in 1588 during a voyage to Paris, and to whom he had sent an annotated copy of the Essays requesting that she take care of its publication (which did not happen until fifteen months later).
In 1860, Pierre Magne, minister of Napoleon III, bought the castle. He withdrew there after the 16 May 1877 crisis and became generally distant from the meetings of the Senate. He died of disease on 17 February 1879.
The castle was completely rebuilt after a fire that seriously damaged it in 1885.
Architecture
The architecture of the extant chateau has a neo-renaissance flavour. After crossing the gate, one arrives in a square court surrounded by ramparts. The round tower of the library is the only vestige of the 16th century and is a popular location for visitors of the castle. It is said that Michel de Montaigne composed his Essays here.
Since 2009, Château de Montaigne has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Château de Montaigne

Château de Rauzan is a castle in the French commune of Rauzan, in the Gironde département of France.
Built by John Lackland, Duke of Normandy (1199-1204), Duke of Guyenne (1199-1216) and King of England 1199-1216, the castle was built on a rock occupied since ancient times. Witness of the Hundred year War, the castle was captured twice by the French.
It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. From 1970, the commune of Rauzan, owner since 1900, and lovers of medieval architecture, have undertaken work of clearing and restoration.
History
The castle at Rauzan was erected in the 13th century by John, King of England. It then became the property of Rudel of Bergerac (1223-1320), then of Guillaume-Raymond of Madaillan (1320-1391) who fought at the side of the Black Prince, governor of Guyenne of 1356 to 1370, at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 and at the imprisonment of the King of France, John II ("John the Good").
In October 1370, Bertrand of Guesclin returned to France where he was made constable to Charles V and began his big venture to expel the English from france. Contrary to the habits of the French chivalry, he did not proceed to the great mountains with the entire French army, but preferred to methodically reconquer whole provinces, besieging castle after castle. He would chase the English from Normandy, Guyenne, Saintonge and Poitou. The castle in Rauzan was captured in 1377.
Rauzan was then the subject of a law suit between Henri IV (1367-1413) and Jeanne of Armagnac, great-granddaughter of Saint Louis and wife of Guillaume-Amanieu of Madaillan (1375-1414), the last male representative of that branch, whose wife had a daughter named Agnès, who died young. At the death of her husband, she won the right to remarry a Frenchman on condition of giving up the castle.
Rauzan then fell to Bernard Angevin (1437-1480), whose opportunistic attitude pointed the English camp to the French camp in accordance to his interests. At the end of the Hundred Years' War, he sided with the crown of France and retained all of his property. As the troubles of the war passed, he refurbished the castle little by little as it evolved from a fortified castle into a residental château.
Rauzan then passed into the hands of Durfort of Duras who gradually abandoned it. Bordeaux quarrymen extracted stones of the building (for cutting tombstones) and blocks of rock on which it was based, which caused the northern part of the château to fall. The ruins became, in 1819, the property of Chastellux before the town acquired it in 1900.
Building description
The building secured three main functions that characterised medieval castles: defence, housing and reflection of the power of the family.
The castle entrance
The entrance was protected by several defensive elements. A barbican controlled the drawbridge and access to the castle. There was another drawbridge that has disappeared. The door was protected by a portcullis with a watch tower and the keep to the left.
The keep
The keep's cylindrical plan was built around 1325. Each floor has three arches. On the first floor it had a trapdoor in the centre of the room provided access to the storerooms below. The second floor has the oldest castle fireplace. Parts of the third and fourth floors are more spacious because they were built on an octagonal plan and have much wider arches. Also, they are not cluttered with chimneys because they were heated with heating vents.
The stately home
Built in the early century 14th, the stately home was completely remodeled in the 15th century. When it was built, a central separating wall and cross windows were introduced onto the courtyard outside. It can be accessed from the courtyard on the ground floor or the staircase serving all floors. On the first floor was the reception room in which only a few frescoes remain. The lord’s apartments were in the second floor; all of the rooms in this home contained fireplaces.
The ladies' quarters (northeast) were built in the 16th century but were completely destroyed in 19th century, when the castle was abandoned.
A round walk served various homes. The door of honour is Gothic styled and decorated with the arms of Bernard Angevin and Duras Durfort.
The west buildings
Along the west wall, facing the stately home, sit buildings that overlook the courtyard which remain on the foundation today. This structure was a very common defensive system. Parts which remain include latrines leading into the ditch, a walkway accessed by stairs. A ditch and towers to the prison lay around the well; both have been ruined.
The northern wall
Nothing remains in this part of the building due to the quarrymen of Bordeaux extracting its stone for carving tombstones which caused the wall to collapse in 1845.
Film
Serge de Poligny filmed Le Baron fantôme (The Phantom Baron, 1942) at Château de Rauzan.

Château de Rauzan

The Château de Vayres is a medieval castle, located on the banks of the Dordogne River, located in the commune of Vayres, in the Gironde Department of France, near the city of Bordeaux. The château de Vayres was rebuilt during the Renaissance, and again in 1700. It is classified as an official historical landmark of France, and the gardens are listed as among the Notable Gardens of France by the Committee of Parks and Gardens of the French Ministry of Culture,
History
The castle is located on a point dominating the Dordogne River. Excavations found pottery ovens, indicating that the site had a large population in Gallo-Roman times, and that there was a wooden fort on the site, and later a Gallo-Roman oppidum, or fortress.
The castle was built in the 11th century to protect the city of Bordeaux. It was made of stone and surrounded by a wooden palisade, as attested in a manuscript dated 1092. Nothing remains of the original structure.
In 1288 the chateau and lands were given as a dowry to Amanieu VII d'Albret, who became the seigneur des Vayres. He strengthened the chateau with a new tower, Tour du Moulin. The chateau remained in his family for three hundred years, until the time of King Henry IV.
Beginning in 1326 Bérard d’Albret took the side of England in the struggle for control of the region. He received financial support from King Eward II of England, and turned the castle into a large fortress. From that period, the donjon, the entry and the moats, now dry, still remain.
The château was badly damaged during the Hundred Years War. During the 14th century, its successive owners switched back and forth between the French and English side. The castle was seized in retaliation and given to different nobles, including Gaston de Foix, and another branch of the d'Albret family. In 1499 it was given by marriage to Cesar Borgia, whose daughter then restored it to Henri d'Albret, the king of Navarre and the grandfather of the future King of France, Henry IV, in 1535.
Henry IV inherited the house through his mother, Jeanne d'Albret. He stayed in the castle several times, and then in 1583 he sold it, largely ruined, to Ogier de Gourgue. Ogier de Gourgue was in charge of the treasury of Guyenne, and he commissioned a well-known architect, Louis de Foix, who had built the lighhouse of Cordouan and had worked for the king of Spain, to rebuild the castle in the new style of the French Renaissance, with an elegant facade, in the mannerist style of the late Renaissance, facing the Court of Honor.
In the 17th century the Château de Vayres was the scene of battles between the Gourgue family and other nobles the region against the power of Cardinal Mazarin and the young King Louis XIV. The chateau was badly damaged during these battles.
In about 1700 Jacques-Joseph de Gourgue, the bishop of Bazas, undertook the restoration of the chateau in the style of the eighteenth century. He harmonized the structures and created a monumental stairway on the site of the old moats. In the beginning of the 17th century he replaced the drawbridge and the barbacane with the present bridge and portico in the style of Vauban, by which one today enters the chateau. The chateau has not been restored since that time.
The Gourgue family were the owners of the chateau until 1900. In 2001, the chateau was classified as an historical monument of France. The castle itself is still occupied, and has undergone considerable restoration inside.
The Gardens
The original gardens were created in the 17th century, were large and extended along the Dordogne River. They were abandoned and replaced by fields, and then recreated in 1938 as a Garden à la française by the landscape architect Louis-Ferdinand Duprat. A monumental stairway leads from the chateau across the old moat to the French gardens by the river, where there are parterres bordered with hedges of yew, and boxwood trees clipped into cone shapes. There is also a flower garden of medieval inspiration, and an English-style park, with cedar, oak, linden, hornbeam and copper beech trees.

Château de Vayres

Charlemagne 769
In 769, While Charlemagne started his reconquest of Aquitanian, he decided to establish a fortified camp close to the hillock, “Campus Francorum”. This oppidum which will become Fronsac. North of the camp, on the La Rivière place, at the end of the limestone plateau which is 60 metre high (as much as the Saint Emilion church), was the mound that is still called the La Rivière mound and in which was discovered the vestige of a Gallic grave. 
The emperor built a guard tower which allowed him to watch over the enemies coming from the Dordogne river or the forest around.
René Mortier Quarré 1900 - 1925
René Mortier Quarré who owned the estate at the beginning of the 20 century had the brilliant idea of ageing the wine in barrels in the underground quarries dug during the 18th century. 
He also decided to use the quarries (underground galleries?) for storing the bottles until they are sold… Indeed, the storage condition are perfect (13°C, 100% humidity; darkness).
Jean Balluteaud 1925 - 1960
In 1925, Mr Balluteaud purchased the estate and decided to open the underground caves to the visitors and tell them about the optical condition to store the wine. 
Inside the galleries are displayed 450 boxes where age the bottles starting from the bottling. In the underground cellars, Mr Balluteaud created the Beautiful limestone table called the “Knight Table”. 
We can also admired a copy of the griddle which is in the armory room, doors cut in the limestone, all of this throughout 25 km of galleries…
Jacques Borie 1960 - 1994
Starting from the 60s, Jacques Borie focused on the vineyard and enlarged it to 45 hectares which made the property the largest of the appellation. He created the golden label with still fin on the bottle nowadays. 
1962, a vintage vinified by Mr Borie, is the oldest vintage we preciously store in our the cave.
Jean Leprince 1994 - 2003
he was also the executive director of the Pinault Group from 1972 to 1988. Starting from 1994, Jean Leprince was particulrary well known for his wine trade activity in Bordeaux. 
He owned different well-known Chateaux from the region, some Wine Merchant activities, a wooden box and a cooper company. He was also a printer. 
During this period, the Leprince family (with the help of Xavier and Valerie Péneau, son in law and daughter of Jean Leprince) expanded the vineyard to 50 hectares, refurnished a part of the Château and upgraded the cellars. 
At the same time, the owners decided to hire the famous Consulting enologist Michel Rolland who improved considerably to wine quality. 
Jean Leprince accidentally died in 2002, his family sold the estate the following year.
James Grégoire 2003 - 2013
James Gregoire, who fell under the spell of the estate many years before, bought the Château De La Rivière in 2003. His ambition was to perpetuate the quality and reputation of the wine. 
He hired the consulting enologist Claude Gros and decided to undertake the necessary investments not only in the vineyard but also in the cellars and in the Château. 
The vineyard reached 65 hectares in 2013. As an astute businessman, he had created the grape harvester line society “Gregoire” based in Cognac which became the most famous company in its activity. 
In agreement with his family, he decided to sell the property in December 2013. Shortly after the sale, Mr Gregoire and the new owner, Mr Kok tragically died in a helicopter crash.
Bolian Group since end of 2013
Since the end of 2013, Chateau de La Rivière is part of the Bolian Group which is specialized in luxury hotels and tea production in the Yunnan province. 
Xavier Buffo has been at working at the Chateau de La Rivière since 1997 and he is now the current director. 
The Story of the Château is still being written… More than ever in many languages throughout the world, wherever wine lovers appreciate the quality of our passionate work. 
http://www.chateau-de-la-riviere.com