x
  • Weather

    13° C Light rain
  • Time

    19:14 PM
  • Wine average?

    91 Tb
  • Country Ranking?

    698
  • Region Ranking?

    1
  • Popularity ranking?

    176

History

One of the most ancient winegrowing estates in Bordeaux, Château Carbonnieux has made wine without interruption since the 13th century.

FROM THE MONKS OF SAINTE CROIX TO THE FERRON FAMILY (1292-1730)

A deed of exchange dated April 2, 1292, between two monks of the powerful abbaye de Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux, bears witness to the mediaeval origins of the Château Carbonnieux estate. At the time, there was a vineyard forming an enclave in the dense Ornon forest, "Artigue" (cleared land), that had been cleared by the Carbonius family. After the trials and tribulations of the Hundred Years War, the district (quarter) of Carbonnieux, a noble fief, became the property of a Bordeaux apothecary, Jean Dupuyau, also known as Passerage.

 

 

In 1519, his widow, Guillemette, sold the Carbonnieux land to Jean de Ferron, who hailed from a powerful bourgeois family of Bordeaux which already owned vines in the 13th century. Ennobled, Jean de Ferron, to be worthy of his rank, had to own a great vineyard in the Graves region. His land purchase and consolidation policy continued under his successors for two centuries, until the domain was large enough to become a genuine noble house with a château, outbuildings and, of course, vines. Under the reign of Louis XIV, during the lifetime of François de Ferron, Carbonnieux reached its first peak.

 

 

THE RETURN OF THE MONKS BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1730-1789)

The last Lord of Carbonnieux, Charles de Ferron, ran into debt and sold his estate to the monks of Sainte-Croix, for 120,000 Livres. After two and a half centuries in the Ferron family, a new era began for Carbonnieux. Initially purchased to be "a mother Earth" for the abbey, the Carbonnieux estate soon became the major investment of the Benedictine monks, who did not hesitate to borrow huge amounts of money to take their Carbonnieux growth to the very top of white Graves wine rankings. In the ranking of the Guyenne Intendance, published in 1776, the white wines of the "Aux Bénédictins de Carbonnieux" growth sold for approximately 800 Livres per cask, for a production of 150 casks. Although the "premier cru de Pontac" (Haut-Brion) was the reference for red wines at the time (1,250 to 1,500 Livres per cask), Carbonnieux by far led the ranking of white wines of Guyenne. The famous bottle bearing the coquille Saint-Jacques attained worldwide renown, from Constantinople to the United States.

 

 

The clear white wines of Carbonnieux, with their pale colour, sneaked their way into the palace of an Ottoman sultan. One of his courtesans, the reputed Aimée Dubuc de Rivery, captured by pirates and offered to Abdul-Hamid I, became his first sultana and claimed they were a rare and invigorating water: «the mineral water of Carbonnieux»

 

 

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and a great wine lover, selected a few famous estates to visit during a trip to France. His diary shows that he came to Carbonnieux to taste the"Wine of the Odalisques", as it was then called in the United States.

In January 1791, following a fierce auction, Carbonnieux was sold as "national property" to Elie de Bouchereau, for 366,000 Livres, which was 170,000 Livres above its estimated worth. Back from the Indies, where they had made a fortune in sugar cane, the Bouchereau family settled at Château Carbonnieux for 87 years. Prior to the Phylloxera attack of 1871, the estate comprised 137 hectares, half of which were planted in noble Bordeaux grape varieties, painstakingly selected thanks to the ampelographic research of the Bouchereau brothers.

 

From 1828 to 1871, Henry-Xavier Bouchereau started a unique collection of French and European grape varieties at Carbonnieux, that included up to 1,242 different specimens. Like most owners during the "disease crisis", the Bouchereau family sold their estate in 1878.

The estate then passed through numerous owners. Finally, at the beginning of the 20th century, Doctor Martin decided to resurrect the vineyard. In 1920, the estate was purchased by a Bordeaux trading company, which subsequently sold it to an industrialist, Jean-Jacques Chabrat. In his time, Château Carbonnieux was classified as a Grand Cru de Graves for the first time in 1953, for its red and white wines. The final classification of 1959 confirmed this ranking. In the meantime, the Perrin family had taken over the estate.

 

THE PERRIN FAMILY: A lineage of winemakers

In 1839, Philibert Perrin, the descendant of a family of winemakers from Nuits Saint-Georges, entered the service of Alphonse de Lamartine, poet, politician and wine merchant. In 1845, Philibert was asked by his master to leave Milly en Mâconnais and to go to Algeria, where he ended up being a self-employed real-estate trader. His son Antony (born in 1860) graduated top of his class at the Montpellier Agricultural Institute. He built up a wine estate that became the largest in the entire Oran region: Château Tirenat-les-Pins.

 

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the château covered some 300 hectares and produced 6,000 hectolitres. It continued to grow until the situation deteriorated significantly in Algeria. Marc Perrin then turned to the opposite bank of the Mediterranean and purchased Château Carbonnieux during the frost of February 1956. When the Perrin Family was forced to leave Algeria in 1962, they found the château and its vineyards in a very sorry state. At the time, Carbonnieux had only 30 hectares of vines, with very low yields. The facilities had to be entirely revamped.

 

THE PERRIN FAMILY: THE PEAK OF CARBONNIEUX, FROM 1956 TO THE PRESENT DAY

As soon as he bought the château in 1956,Marc Perrin tackled its renovation. He first started a significant replanting campaign, that took the estate to 45 hectares in 1970, then to 70 hectares in 1980, to reach almost 92 hectares today. Antony, who was appointed manager in 1983, built a new fermentation cellar and modernised the cellars to adapt them to new vinification methods. He continued the restoration of the chateau and vineyards, and focused on increasing the renown of Carbonnieux and of Bordeaux wines throughout the world. He was one of the forerunners of the Pessac-Léognan appellation, created in 1987. He also purchased new estates in the appellation: Le Sartre and Bois Martin, today owned by his sister.

He gradually passed on all his skill and the family winemaking heritage to his sons, Eric et Philibert : growing and vinification methods, painstaking care and a sense of quality…

Today, the estate is at its peak and the torch has been passed to them.

Close

Vineyards

A UNIQUE GRAVEL OUTCROP FOR DIVERSE TERROIRS

 

The specific morphology of the outcrop making up the Château Carbonnieux terroir can be explained by the runoff that removed the gravel layer deposited on four faces during the Quaternary era. A cap of massive gravel, that was relatively unaffected by erosion, today occupies the top of a strongly eroded gravel terrace.

Coupe Litho

The edge of the Carbonnieux gravel terrace consists of a belt of sandy gravel soils that moved due to the runoff. Its slope, close to the main drainage axis, consists of a resurgence of the tertiary clayey-limestone substratum, sometimes covered by migrant sands. The south-west of the estate is original in that a tongue of Landes sands blown in by the wind was deposited on the limestone base. The outcrop and its appendages are drained thanks to many drainage pathways. This natural drainage of the soil ensures good water stress of the vineyard in the ripening phase.

Coupe Géologique

These different soils are typical of Château Carbonnieux, and give rise to multiple terroir sites, with distinctive personality. The geological situation guarantees complexity and fullness in the wines produced by this Classified Growth of Pessac-Léognan.


A CRU CLASSE TERROIR

In 1959, when the Great Growths of the Graves were officially classified, Château Carbonnieux was classified along with 16 Graves growths, all within the current Pessac-Léognan appellation. Thanks to the exceptional potential of its terroir, Château Carbonnieux was classified both for red and for white wines, which is the case for only 6 Classified Growths of the Graves. Today, the Carbonnieux estate covers 170 hectares of land at the gateway to Bordeaux, including vineyards on 92 adjoining hectares, with equal quantities of red and white varieties.

 

 

 

GRAPE VARIETIES SUITED TO A DIVERSIFIED TERROIR

The selection of grape varieties suited to soil types has been an integral part of the special winemaking culture of Château Carbonnieux for centuries. In keeping with its long history, the Carbonnieux vineyard today scrupulously respects the traditional planting area of its red and white varieties. Out of the 50 hectares planted with red grape varieties, cabernet sauvignon (60%) expresses terroirs of deep and massive gravel, its ideal soil, while merlot (30%) is planted in fine gravel and clayey soils. Cabernet franc (7%) is planted in clayey-limestone soils covered with fine gravel, like petit verdot and carmenère (3%). For the 42 hectares planted with white varieties, sauvignon (65%) dominates on deep gravel soils, and, in order to lend greater expression to the wine, it is also planted in fine gravel and in clayey-limestone soils. Sémillon (35%) is planted only in clayey-limestone soils, lending the wine fleshiness and complex aromas.

 

A VINEYARD IN THE PRIME OF LIFE, WITH EARLY-RIPENING GRAPES

Planting of the grape varieties.


 

At Carbonnieux, despite a regular turnover of renewed planting, the average age of the vines is high (27 years for red vines, 32 for white vines). Finally, factors such as exposure of vine rows to sunlight, the combination of early-ripening varieties with warm soils and the specific micro-climate of the Château Carbonnieux outcrop explain early budding in spring and therefore earlier ripening for the harvest.

 

AN ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY ESTATE

One of our key concerns is to come as close as possible to organic-type farming. Today, for all its vineyard practices, Château Carbonnieux benefits from the "sustainable agriculture" classification. This type of practice allows the vine plant to stimulate its own natural defences. This means that chemical insecticides, weed-killers and acaricides are banned and replaced by methods that better respect biodiversity and that are, above all, totally environment-friendly:

• Return to ploughing and "traditional" work on the soil, to do away with weed-killers.
• Release of pheromones to create sexual confusion and do away with insecticides against vine moths.
• Regular leaf removal, crop thinning and constant climate monitoring make it possible to significantly reduce or even totally do away with anti-botrytis chemicals.
• Painstaking selection of vine plants from which we make grafts on root stocks ensuring vine stocks less sensitive to disease and requiring less outside intervention. 
•Only natural, organic and mineral fertilizers, to compensate everything the plant consumes during its growth cycle…

Still with a focus on environment protection, Château Carbonnieux has a plant for the treatment of effluents from its vine-growing and winemaking activity.

 

 

OPTIMUM QUALITY

All the processes we have implemented to protect the environment have the additional advantage of fostering enhanced expression of the terroir. Work on the soil throughout the year encourages the vine plant to push its roots down deep. It therefore feeds on very diverse layers, which ensures the complexity and constant quality of the wines. Crop thinning and "double guyot" pruning ensure yield control (maximum of 40-45 hl per hectare) and increase the aromatic potential of the grapes. Manual leaf removal allows good air flow around the vine plant and offers the grapes maximum sunlight... At Carbonnieux, vine growing is constantly focused on optimum quality, giving pride of place to a homogenous harvest. Healthy and aromatic grapes are always the promise of a great wine, worthy of a Cru Classé.

Close

Winemaking

 

The white grape plots at Château Carbonnieux ripen particularly early. They are on a terroir that benefits from excellent sunshine. Each year, they start the harvest for the entire Bordeaux region. Perhaps it is this early ripening that lends the wine its exceptional character?

 

The red grapes ripen later, and benefit from the fine early autumn seasons we so often have in the region, that make it possible to take the grapes to optimum ripeness.

The harvest is entrusted to locals who are familiar with the vineyards of Château Carbonnieux. The painstaking care they devote to picking the grapes, in particular by selecting bunches and even berries, followed by the work at the sorting table prior to vatting, guarantee the optimal health of the harvest.

 

THE CHILDHOOD OF A WINE : VINIFICATION

To ensure aromatic complexity and fullness, and to achieve the distinctive pale golden colour of the white wines of Château Carbonnieux, three days of maceration, punctuated with frequent clarification, are needed. Fermentation continues in barrels, by batches selected depending on their original plot.

 

Fermentation of red wines lasts 28 days at low temperature and involves regular pumping-over. The cap of the marc is gently broken in order to extract the tannins and lend the wines the deep colour that characterises the red wines of Château Carbonnieux. Once fermentation is over, the wines are placed in barrels to start the ageing process.

 

AGEING - WINES AGED IN KEEPING WITH BORDEAUX TRADITION

During their 10 months of barrel ageing, the lees of our white wines are stirred several times. Thanks to this ancestral manual stirring process, the fine lees are suspended in the barrel to lend body and fullness to the wines.

 

The ageing of red wines lasts 18 months in oak barrels. Slowly, the tannins in the wood blend with those of the wine and give rise to vanilla aromas. Oxygen, that passes slowly between the staves of the barrels, very gently preserves the wine and the "angel's share" is exhaled. In light of this natural wine loss, the winemaker tops-up the barrels to adjust the levels.


BLENDING - NECTAR IN ITS BOTTLE

 

Each barrel is identified by its plot of origin, its colour and its grape variety. At the end of the ageing process, blending gives life to the different wines. The best batches, offering outstanding aromatic qualities and cellaring potential, are selected for the red and white Carbonnieux wines. The other plots will be used to craft Tour Léognan and La Croix de Carbonnieux. After the painstaking blending process, the wines are fined (with egg whites for red wines, with bentonite – a natural mineral clay – for white wines) to precipitate the last suspended micro-particles. The wines are then ready for bottling. The bottles rest in our cellars for a few months before delivery.

Crafted by the Perrin Family for more than a half-century, the great wines of Château Carbonnieux, both white and red, are then ready to grace your cellar and table, as an excellent match for all dishes.

Close

4 different wines with 53 vintages

Winemaking since 1524

  • Èric Perrin

    Of course, we will continue to enhance quality, time and time again, but by small touches, without any risk of altering the expression of the terroir or of damaging our environment...
Incorrect Information
If you found some information that is wrong, let us know
UPGRADE MEMBER PLAN
Upgrade your membership now, it's quick and easy. We use PayPal, the world's largest payment system, it accepts all credit cards. Once you've chosen your membership level, you'll go directly to PayPal. You can cancel your membership at any time.
Thank you for your support!
 

Pro Member

 

Winemerchant Member

 

Winery Member

 

User

 

HOW TO USE TASTINGBOOK?

We recommend you to share few minutes for watching the following video instructions of how to use the Tastingbook. This can provide you a comprehensive understanding of all the features you can find from this unique service platform.

This video will help you get started



Taste wines with the Tastingbook


Create Your wine cellar on 'My Wines'



Explore Your tasted wines library



Administrate Your wine world in Your Profile



Type a message ...
Register to Tastingbook
Sign up now, it's quick and easy.
We use PayPal, the world's largest payment system, it accepts all credit cards.
Once you've chosen your membership level, you'll go directly to PayPal, where you can sign up for a free 7-day trial period. You can cancel your membership at any time. We wish you a rewarding journey to the world of Fine Wines.

Free 7 days Member trial

 

Member

 

Pro Member

 

Winemerchant Member

 

Winery Member

 

User

  Register