Chateau Cantemerle is the second of the first well-known Bordeaux estates you see as start the drive along the D2, as you head towards the Medoc, just after Chateau La Lagune. Chateau Cantemerle is also one of the oldest properties in the Bordeaux wine region. Historical documents listing the Lords of Cantemerle of La Sauve Majeur Abbey can be dated all the way back to the 12th century.

The documents exist thanks to the monks who recorded any business that transpired in the monastic community. The estate took its name from the Lords of Cantemerle. Although it did not begin to go under that name until 1340 when Ponset de Cantemerle changed the name of the estate.

Ponset de Cantemerle was the first person to cultivate the vineyards. This was a big step because, in those days, most of the land was used for planting wheat. By the 16th century, Chateau Cantemerle was devoted to the production of wine.

In 1845, Pierre Chadeuil, the new owner of Chateau Pibran, a neighboring vineyard in Pauillac, began to label his wines Chadeuil Cantemerle Chateau Pibran. He stated Cantemerle had been associated not only with the private estate of the Villeneuve family but also with all the lands surrounding it in the Left Bank.

Because of that, he was fully justified in incorporating Cantemerle into the name of his Bordeaux wine. The logic was, it represented a region of origin and not a family name. However, the owner of Cantemerle, Madame Villeneuve-Durfort did not agree.

Producing documents from the 1570s, when the Villeneuve family had acquired the estate, she proved that Chadeuil’s claims were false and that Chadeuil was forced to pay damages and for the cost of the trial. He was also forced to change the name of his wine. It is a good thing that Madame Villeneuve-Durfort was a feisty owner.

In 1855, when the classification of the Medoc took place, Chateau Cantemerle was accidentally left off the list of the classed chateaux. It was at the continued insistence of Madame Villeneuve-Durfort, that her property, Chateau Cantemerle be reinstated in the classification. It was quite a story at the time.

The short version is that until 1853, she sold all her own wine. So 1854 was the first vintage offered for sale by Negociants. She demanded they include Cantemerle in the classification, bringing 40 years of books proving her wine sold for as much, or more money than the other 1855 Fifth Growths!

That re-addition to the classification became the first of only two major changes in the classification. If the name Durfort seems familiar, that is because they also owned Chateau Durfort Vivens in the Margaux appellation.

Until the late 1800s, the fortunes of Chateau Cantemerle could not have been any better. What happened next devastated the property. Cantemerle was not only the worst hit of all the Medoc classified growths during the phylloxera crisis, but the vines were subsequently attacked by downy mildew between 1879 and 1887.

Consequently, the annual production of Chateau Cantemerle was slashed by over 50%. The vineyard was in poor condition as many of the vines were dead and the vineyard needed replanting.