Château Beau-Site dates all the way back to the 18th century and is said to be one of the oldest properties in Saint-Estèphe. It has an enviable, elevated position overlooking the Gironde Estuary.
History
For more than 350 years, the Castéja family has lived in the heart of the Médoc. This story begins in 1600-1650 with Jehan de Castéja, of Landes origin, who bought his first land in Pauillac. His descendants will then also be owners in Saint-Estèphe in the 19th century. Château Beau-Site is part of this story with Marcel Borie, grandfather of Philippe Castéja, who acquired the Château in 1955.
Château Beau-Site is said to be one of the oldest properties in Saint-Estèphe. At the time, Château Beau-Site was part of Château Morin, born in the 18th century. Its name, "Beau-Site", would come from its dominant position which allows it to overlook the entire vineyard and to have a magnificent panorama, one of the prettiest in the appellation.
In 1955, Marcel Borie bought Château Beau-Site and worked to restore its prestige. The wines are, from the outset, vinified and aged on site. The vat room is made up of wooden vats. At the end of the 1950s, Marcel Borie took control of Château Haut-Vignoble Seguin. This 5 ha vineyard is integrated into the Beau-Site vineyard and now produces the property's second wine.
In 1961, Marcel Borie died. Émile Castéja, his son-in-law, then took over the reins of Château Beau-Site. In the 1960s, he replaced the wooden vats with metal vats covered with an epoxy coating. At the end of the 1980s, he replaced part of the metal tanks with stainless steel tanks.
In 2001, Émile Castéja retired. Philippe Castéja then took over from his father and quickly carried out work at the Château: he had an underground passage dug between the barrel cellar and the vat room to facilitate visits. In 2005, the tasting room was set up at the entrance to the barrel cellar, with a view of the estuary. In 2006, the inside of the vat room was completely refurbished. During the same period, the Château was redone and totally refurbished and refurnished, in order to be able to receive both the family of Madame Chantal Preben-Hansen, sister of Philippe Castéja, and visitors, professionals and the press in particular. In 2018, 5 new temperature-controlled stainless steel vats complete the 22 vats of the 1st vat room and are installed in an adjacent vat room.
Vineyards
Ideally located in Saint-Estèphe, on the hill of Saint-Corbian, facing the estuary and near Château Calon-Ségur (Grand Cru Classé in 1855), the terroir of Château Beau-Site is remarkable thanks to its quality soils: gravel, sandy gravel, Eocene limestone, sandy colluvium, Oligocene, marl and clay. Planted with Cabernet Sauvignon (70%), Merlot (25%), Petit Verdot (3%), and Cabernet Franc (2%), its vineyard, with an average age of 45 years, develops marvellously on an area of 40 hectares.
Attached to the Médoc, Saint-Estèphe is located towards the northern tip of Haut-Médoc, on the left bank of the Gironde in the South-West of France. A simple stream separates it from Pauillac, south of Saint-Estèphe. Already planted in Roman times, the Saint-Estèphe vineyard developed from the Middle Ages thanks to English traders who came to buy their wines in the port of Bordeaux. From the 17th century, the drainage of the marshy lands further allowed for an expansion of the surfaces and of the vineyard.
The AOC Saint-Estèphe has been officially recognized since 1936. Thanks to a varied climate and geology, each wine of the appellation is unique.
Its 1,230 hectare vineyard covers soils composed of gravelly alluvium, limestone or oyster marl where Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Carmenère, Côt and Petit Verdot grow. The oceanic climate is temperate but warm enough
for the development of the vine. Summers are hot and winters are mild.
