Chateau Gazin

Château Gazin is located in the appellation Pomerol in Bordeaux, France. The address is 1 chemin de Chantecaille, 33500 Pomerol, France. In the 18th century, the estate was a hamlet and is presumably situated on the site of the hospital of Pomeyrols, which the Knights of St John (Johanniter) built for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. Louis Soualle, the great-grandfather of today’s owners, acquired Château Gazin at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, the estate is run in the fifth generation by his descendants.

The vineyard comprises 26 hectares in a contiguous holding on the upper terrace of the Pomerol terroirs. On the surface, Günzer gravel can be found; in the subsoil there is blue and green clay with iron oxides. The clay subsoil of the Pomerol plateau is described as smectitic and is linked to the availability of water for the vines. The vines are on average 35 years old and planted at 5,500 to 7,000 plants per hectare: 90 per cent Merlot, 7 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon and 3 per cent Cabernet Franc.

The documented vineyard management includes ploughing, organic fertilisers, the lowest possible use of plant protection products including confusion technique, as well as manual harvesting. The grapes are harvested by plot once ripeness has been reached, first in the vineyard and then sorted before and after destemming in the cellar. Alcoholic fermentation takes place separately by grape variety and plot in small concrete vats, followed by a two- to three-week maceration on the skins. The free-run wine and the pressed wine remain separate. The biological acid degradation takes place in barrels or in vats, depending on the quality of the batch.

Château Gazin produces red wine under the Pomerol appellation, an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée for still red wines. There is no official classification of the crus for Pomerol. The wine is aged for 18 months in oak barrels, 50 per cent of which are new barrels, and it is blended gradually during approximately quarterly rackings. The estate describes Château Gazin as a Merlot-driven red wine with red and black fruit characters and ageing potential. The second wine, l’Hospitalet de Gazin, was created in 1986.