History
The history of the estate began in 1310 under the reign of Edward King of England and Duke of Guyenne. In 1793, Château Lanessan’s 24 hectares (59 acres) of vines were bought by Jean Delbos, a former ship owner, who wanted to grow wine with the help of his son Louis.
Château Lanessan sits on top of a mound of deep Garonne gravel on the edge of the Saint-Julien appellation area in the territory of the Haut-Médoc AOC. e view over the vineyards is what makes this place so unique.
Between 1878 and 1887, the estate really took o under the management of André Delbos, who gave Château Lanessan a new lease of life by building a pioneering vathouse and stables, which today house the magni cent saddlery and the family collection of period carriages. Horses have always been another passion on the estate.
The beautiful 8-hectare (20-acre) park was also designed at this time, featuring a really picturesque garden made up of Dutch greenhouses and a profusion of owers. e park is wonderful for walks as well as for riding on horseback or in a horse-drawn carriage.
Antoine de Saint Exupery’s famous quotation takes on real meaning here. In 1907, Mr. Delbos’s daughter, Marie Louise, married Etienne Bouteiller. In the 1960’s, one of her sons, Jean, was o ered a fantastic opportunity and bought Château Lachesnaye and Château de Sainte Gemme in the commune of Cussac-Fort Médoc. ese two acquisitions enabled him to develop the estate substantially and to build a solid foundation for a family entreprise.
Today the Bouteiller estate is a uniform island of 75 hectares (185 acres) of vines in a single plot in the middle of 145 hectares (358 acres) of woodland. For two centuries, the Bouteiller family has con rmed its ambition by producing every year wines with a clearly asserted personality that are elegant and harmonious and have remarkable keeping qualities.