✪ Highlight ✪
🌟The winery's history dates back 1,000 years.
🌟A highly acclaimed white wine winery in the Pessac Leognan appellation.
🌟The winery's original founder is also the owner of the renowned Cantenac Brown.
🌟Owned by the renowned Bordeaux wine family, the Mau family.
🌟Renowned winemaker Stephane Derenoncourt serves as advisor.
🏅James Suckling 94 pts
🏅Wine Enthusiast 92 pts
🏅Wine Spectator 92 pts
Winery / Distillery / Sake Brewery
The history of BROWN goes back almost one thousand years, with traces of vines here as early as the 12th century. Two centuries later, during the Hundred Years’ War between the Kingdoms of England (the Plantagenets) and France, Aquitaine and its vineyards were to remain in English hands for quite some time.
Château Barrière (named after Antoine Barrière, owner from 1750 to 1795) officially took the name Château Brown at the end of the 18th century. Indeed, Château Brown owes its name to a rich Scottish wine trader, John-Lewis Brown, who settled in Bordeaux shortly after the Revolution, in 1795. He built Château Brown’s iconic chartreuse house and he was determined to transform his Léognan estate into somewhere as beautiful as it was productive.
J.L. Brown was also behind the construction of Château Cantenac-Brown (Margaux) and was known for his luxurious lifestyle and countless receptions organised in the Médoc.
In addition to his name, this wine and art enthusiast passed on his passion for the vine and for painting to his grandson, animal painter John Lewis Brown (1829-1890). He spent part of his childhood at Château Brown, in the fashionable equestrian and art circles where his family moved. A childhood that would shape his work – especially hunting scenes – which can be found today in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, Libourne or Tate London…
Region
An ideal location and temperate climate combined with magnificent gravel soils
In the Northern Graves – the oldest winegrowing terroir in Bordeaux dating back 2,000 years – Château Brown lies in the heart of the young Pessac-Léognan appellation created in 1987 by André Lurton, a key winegrowing figure in Bordeaux.
Bordered by vast forests and built-up areas (the towns of Gradignan, Villenave d’Ornon and Léognan), the vineyards enjoy a micro-climate that is ideal for the grape ripening process and therefore the quality of the wine.
Château Brown covers some 60 hectares, including 31 hectares of vines in a single stretch: 26 hectares for reds and 5 ha for whites. For the red wines, the vineyard comprises a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon (53%) and Merlot (45%), plus 2% of Petit Verdot. The varieties on the plots dedicated to white wines are 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Semillon.
The vineyard is planted with a density of 7,400 vines per hectare on two gravel ridges, one in the northern half of the estate and one in the south, rising to a height of 23m. The highest plots of deep gravel with the very best drainage and exposure to the sun are dedicated to Cabernet Sauvignon, while Merlot is planted on the clay-gravel soils. The vines reserved for making white wines are planted on the soils with the most sand and clay.
The terroir as a whole comprises a majority of fine gravel mixed in with alios, a ferruginous and sandy soil.
Winemaking / Distillation / Sake Brewing
Personalised vinification plot by plot
In the winery, some thirty small-capacity stainless steel, temperature-controlled vats (between 50 and 130 hL) are used to vinify the grapes variety by variety, plot by plot, with cutting-edge temperature control. Each batch is vinified separately for greater precision.
Concerning the red wines, the duration of pre-fermentary maceration is adjusted to the various batches, varying between 2 and 5 days. Then, maceration varies between 21 and 28 days, according to the batches and the tannin quality of the vintage. Elegance is the aim, so cap punching is prohibited, although the wine is pumped over regularly to extract fruit and tannin.
Malolactic fermentation is carried out in vats. The wine is then matured in french oak barrels.
For the white wines, the bunches are transported into the vathouse in trays to be pressed in a horizontal pneumatic press. The juice is decanted in cold conditions and allowed to settle in stainless-steel vats without malolactic fermentation. Alcoholic fermentation is exclusively in barrels (50% new wood).
Maturing
Château BROWN matures its white and red wines exclusively in French oak barrels.
The whites go into barrels from alcoholic fermentation and stay there on the fine lees for 8 months (50% in new barrels and 50% in one-wine barrels). The lees are stirred almost throughout maturing to keep them in suspension and reveal the best of the aromas.
The reds will pursue their maturing for 12 to 15 months in barrels, 30% in new barrels and the rest in one-wine barrels and two-wine barrels. The batches are tasted regularly to decide on the final blend. It is only at the end of maturing that the wines will be blended, with all the precision of Jean-Christophe Mau and Bruno Patrouilleau, for both red and white.
This wine is the expression of all the know-how and meticulous attention to detail of CHATEAU BROWN.
【James Sucking 94 pts】
Firm and chalky and a little phenolic on the palate with attractive citrus and stone fruit character. Vivid acidity keeps the nerve and energy with juiciness and crushed stone minerality at the end.
【Wine Enthusiast 92 pts】
Juniper aromas with strong citrus flavors, orange and pink grapefruit. The wine's balance is impeccable, fresh but with rich fruit and texture. Hints of spice are already bringing out the barrel aging.
