Clos Bourgelat

History

The story begins in the nineteenth century: "Uncle Jean", a trader on the quays of the Garonne, left around 1850 to try the wine adventure near New York before returning to Cérons and offering an estate to his nephew Léon Lafosse, in the place called Bougella (former hunting lodge of the Duke of Épernon). In March 1889, Leon and his uncle undertook to make the vine a real profession, on enclosed plots of stone walls inherited from Gallo-Roman practices. Transmitted from father to son through the two world wars, the estate was taken over in the mid-20th century by Jacques Lafosse and his sister Jeanine Ropars, then developed commercially by their son Dominique and his wife Jocelyne. Antoine, son of Dominique, joined the estate in 2005 in the 4th generation. The name "Clos Bourgelat" is a progressive distortion of the "Clos Bougella" mentioned as early as 1737 in notarial deeds (with no proven link to Claude Bourgelat, founder of veterinary schools, despite coincidence).

Family estate of 14.91 hectares located in Cérons (Gironde), in the heart of the Graves vineyard. Clos Bourgelat produces wines in the Graves (red and white), Cérons (sweet), Bordeaux and Vin de France appellations, with wine tourism and accommodation on site.

The Vineyard

Graves vineyard, the only Bordeaux appellation to bear the name of its soil: a mixture of pebbles, sands and silts resting on limestone or clays. Terroir classified as early as the first classification of Bordeaux wines in the 17th century, AOC Graves among the first in France (1937), AOC communale Cérons created in 1936 for sweet wines (confidential production). Temperate climate, pine forest of the Landes attenuating the summer heat; the gravels store the heat of the day and return it in the evening to the clusters, promoting maturation. Driving in High Environmental Value (HVE level 3/4): absence of CMR and pesticides, mechanical and manual soil tillage respectful of biodiversity.

Certifications

High Environmental Value (HVE) level 3/4.