Château Grand-Puy Ducasse

Grand Puy is the name of a low gravel rise in Pauillac that once belonged entirely to a single estate. In 1675 Arnaud Ducasse bought a modest house there by the river, on land that came from the Segur family; in 1750 the lawyer Pierre Ducasse took parcels on that rise and left them his surname.

The rest of that estate went another way and is today's Grand-Puy-Lacoste, which kept changing name through the marriages of the owning family: in the mid-19th century it was called Saint-Guiron, and took its present name when a daughter married a man called François Lacoste. Both châteaux therefore come from the same divided hill.

In the 1855 classification it entered as a Cinquième Grand Cru Classé of Pauillac.

There are 40 hectares spread across some 60 parcels in three communes of the appellation, with eleven different soil types: Günzian and Garonne gravels over clay subsoil and, in the south-western sectors, podzolised soils over clay that bring freshness to the Merlot and Petit Verdot. The vines average 25 years.

It has belonged to CA Grands Crus, part of the Crédit Agricole group, since 2004, and Anne Le Naour directs the winemaking. They began converting to organic farming in 2014 and in 2016 certified HVE3 and ISO 14001.