Chateau d'Agassac

Most of the Chateaux I visited while I was in Bordeaux were ones that I was familiar with, but I also wanted to expand my horizons by trying new (left bank) Chateaux. Chateau d'Agassac was one of those.




Chateau d'Agassac is one of the oldest properties in Bordeaux, dating back to the 13th century. It is also one of the few Chateau I visited that actually looks like a castle. It even has a moat (sadly, the moat is not stocked with alligators or pirana). It wasn't until the 19th century that vines were planted on the property and wine was made.





Chateau d'Agassac has won several wine tourism awards and it is easy to see why. The tasting room, housed in an old pigeon tower, is impressive. Before becoming a wine property, the way the owners would make money was to let hundreds of pigeons nest inside the tower (you can see the holes that line the walls of the tower, those were pigeon nests). The pigeons would lay eggs, the owners would take the eggs and sell them.

They also take a very modern approach to marketing -- although, surprisingly, they do not have any social media presence that I could find -- and work to make Bordeaux wines more accessible,




While their marketing approach is modern, their winemaking style is traditional. Wines are harvested by hand, and aged in a combination of new barrels, one year old barrels, and above-ground steel tanks. The wines are are blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.