CHATEAU FONTESTEAU

Located in the centre of the Médoc peninsula, 50 km from Bordeaux, 50 km from the Pointe de Grave and 4 km West of Pauillac, Fontesteau’s 100 hectares stretch over a remarkable natural landscape.
The thirteenth century castle nestles like a precious jewel encased in a magical landscape, with its forest boasting one-hundred-year-old oak trees surrounded by pines and robinias along with a charming little lake. This château was renovated in 1997 and is now equipped to welcome customers and professionals of the wine industry.

Between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde River, the Médoc offers an ideal temperate climate, allowing the grapes to ripen beautifully and guaranteeing balance and finesse in the wines. The gravelly soil of Fontesteau, with its deep limestone base, allows the traditional Médoc grape varieties (particularly the Cabernet Sauvignon) to express their full potential.

The Fontesteau vineyard has been using integrated agricultural methods for the last 30 years,  exploiting the plants’ natural defence system and avoiding where possible the use of synthetic products to protect the vineyard.

Each year the grapes picked at optimum ripeness give the cuvées with different characteristic tastes. The plots are vinified individually so that each vat represents its own specificity when proposed at the blend tasting that takes place in the January following the harvest.
No vintage is ever the same as another. The magic of blending confers a unique style to each : The Cabernet Sauvignon is always the dominant variety in the Château Fontesteau blend, a deep and elegant wine.

Three-quarters of the blend is aged for 12 months in barrels (25% new) for a fine-tuning of the tannins.
A quarter of the total volume stays in vat to ensure a certain freshness and conserve the pleasant  fruitiness before the bottling is carried out from may. According to personal taste, Château Fontesteau wines are at their best after 5 to 10 years in the cellar yet never disappoint those patient enough to wait 20 years or even more.