AS

The history of Château Montrose

It is hard to imagine that although construction of the building did not begin until 1815, Château Montrose was listed as a Deuxième in the 1855 classification. In 1778, the then owner of Château Calon-Segur, Etienne-Theodore Dumoulin, bought the site that we know today as Montrose. His son cleared the trees and bushes because he suspected that the soil underneath was gravelly. He drained the land and planted it with vines at enormous expense. By 1855, 50 hectares were already under cultivation.
 
In 1866, 5 years after Dumoulin's death, his heirs sold the vineyard to Matthieu Dolfus from Alsace. After considerable expansion, the estate was sold to Jean Hostein in 1889, and again 7 years later to his son-in-law Louis Charmolüe. His grandson Jean-Louis Charmolüe managed Montrose from 1960 until 2006, when he passed it on to the brothers Martin and Olivier Bouygues, who are well represented in the Forbes lists.
In a sensational deal, 22 hectares were purchased from neighbouring Phelan-Segur in 2010.

The vineyards extend from the estate to the Gironde, which is about 700 metres away, and currently cover 90 hectares. Cabernet Sauvignon occupies 65%, Merlot 30%, Cabernet Franc 4% and Petit Verdot 1% of the vineyard area. Under a layer of stony gravel about 2 metres thick lie ferruginous sands, which in turn overlie clay-limestone sandstone. The vines are now on average just over 40 years old and produce yields of around 50 hectolitres per hectare.