According to the official Bordeaux Tourism website, the most mysterious and historical château in the region—a famed address studded with innumerable noble houses, grand estates, and regal castles of vast length and breadth—is indubitably Château du Grand Mouëys in the Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux appellation.

The Bordeaux brochure says that as “a Gallo-Roman villa in the 1st century, this château later became a stopover on the road to Santiago de Compostela in the 11th century. An intriguing estate, Château du Grand Mouëys is bound to appeal to wine aficionados and history lovers. Indeed, the property is said to have belonged to the Order of the Templars. Legend has it that they hid a fabulous treasure there.”

A mystery no more, the treasure unearthed, after having been buried over the past few centuries, is undoubtedly the exquisite wine emerging from the grounds of the vast estate, at the centre of which sits the castle of Grand Mouëys.

A picture tells a thousand words, and as the images here illustrate, this perfectly painted and restored ancient castle and its surroundings of lush greens, perforated with pink hydrangeas, is an idyllic venue, plucked from a fairy tale. But there is no mythic tale to the proud edifice; each stone is rooted in deep history.

Under the aegis of Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux, on the right bank of the Garonne River, Château du Grand Mouëys’s wine estate is nestled on 3 hills , on a property of 170 hectares—an ideal terroir for growing grapes. 50 hectares of vines are planted on the south side of the hills where  face the sun, as the land is meticulously cultivated to reap strong stems. Old wisdom has it that “the greater the struggle, the more thrilling the fruit,” and these vineyards are all located on sun-kissed slopes with clay limestone and gravel as the main soil, the fusion of which creates a superior geographical environment with variety, elevation, and orientation to produce top-tier wine. As the records in the archives state, the terrain traces back to the first century, a Gallo-Roman villa of yore, the vine growing history has a recorded document tracing back to 1135. By 1868, Château du Grand Mouëys held the reputation of a noble Cru Bourgeois.

What makes the wine so fine year after year, decade after decade? “Low yields, strict selection, meticulous blending, and ageing in French new oak barrels guarantee the extraordinary quality of the wines,” says the literature on the locale. 

Over the course of the past decade alone, the wines have won 30 international awards, 40 medals from French national wine awards, and high praise from the holy trifecta of strictly adhered epicureans: Bordeaux, Paris and Brussels. For those in the know, influential wine review guides Hachette and Decanter, with the most particular editors, have given the wine high ratings and evaluations. 

All images courtesy of Château du Grand Mouëys.