One early owner gifted a family name to the chateau. A different set of nineteenth-century owners with connections to Pope Leo XIII made de Fieuzal famous by filling the Vatican’s wine cellars with the wine. Since 2001, de Fieuzal has been owned by Lochlan Quinn, former chairman of the Allied Irish Bank. The size of the vineyard hasn’t deterred him from pushing for the chateau to partially adopt biodynamic viticulture, on top of which, if you visit, you will find vegetable gardens, henhouses and beehives. Winemaker Stephen Carrier has an impeccable CV, including 6 years at Lynch Bages, and he has supervised the restructuring of the vineyard and the construction of a new cellar aimed at plot-by-plot vinification.

The 70 hectares of vineyard at de Fieuzal make this one of the largest estates in Pessac, on land to the south of the town of Leognan. The vineyards are neatly divided by the Eau Blanche stream into two parts, one gravelly, one on clay-limestone. The stream itself provides much needed moisture in hot vintages. For red, the vineyards are planted to 50% Cabernet Sauvignon/37% Merlot/8% Petit Verdot/5% Cabernet Franc. But this being Pessac, there is also an excellent white wine, with 10 hectares in the coolest spots of the vineyard given over to equal amounts of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. (NT 07/08/25)