Beauregard has a long history dating back to the 11th century when the Knights of l'Hôpital Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, who had an emblematic Knights Templar cross, were active in the Pomerol region. Five centuries later, the Beauregard family built the first house on the site of the knights' small manor, which was replaced during the Napoleonic era by the present château. It was in the mid-18th century that Beauregard became a vine-growing property and successive owners contributed to its development, making it one of the best wines in Pomerol. In 2014, the Moulin and Cathiard families purchased Château Beauregard, along with Château Bastor Lamontagne in Sauternes and Château Saint Robert in the Graves, and set about making sweeping changes.
Château Beauregard has exceptional terroir, being situated on the southeast edge of the famous Pomerol plateau with mainly gravelly soil, along with clay and sand, producing elegant and characterful Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The vineyard stretches over 17.5 hectares with over 35 plots grown and tended on an individualised basis according to their specificities.
The vines are grown organically with a reasoned use of different seeds enabling the creation of biological diversity favouring life in the soil. Trees and bushes are maintained on the estate to attract an auxiliary fauna useful in the fight against certain vine pests.
At Château Beauregard, the vineyard is tended to using traditional methods, including ploughing the soil and working the youngest plots with horses. The vines are carefully cared for through manual labor, ensuring each vine receives individual attention and optimal exposure to sunlight and ventilation. To achieve the highest quality grapes, the crop loads are balanced. Harvesting and vinification are done with even greater precision, thanks to a new state-of-the-art vat cellar. Manual harvesting is done on a plot-by-plot basis, respecting optimal phenolic ripening. The grape sorting process has been refined with the use of a new reception line that combines selective sorting lines, a high-frequency de-stemmer, and laser optical sorting. The vats are filled using gravity flow, with small mobile bins brought to the top of the vats via a lift. Alcoholic fermentation is carried out at controlled temperatures, with the malo-lactic fermentation done in new oak barrels for the highest quality batches. The wine is aged in barrels for 15 to 20 months, with up to 7 different coopers used.
Read more