🏰 Château Beychevelle

Château Beychevelle is a wine estate in Saint-Julien, in the Médoc, on the Gironde estuary. According to the estate, the château was built in 1565 for Bishop François de Foix-Candale, whose niece married the Duke of Épernon. From 1587 the duke, a grand admiral, required passing boats to lower their sails as a sign of allegiance, which gave the estate its name, from the Gascon “Bécha Véla” (“lower the sail”).

In 1825 the merchant Pierre-François Guestier acquired the château and restructured the vineyard; later came the Heine and Achille-Fould families, and Aymar Achille-Fould created the second wine Amiral de Beychevelle. Suntory has been present since 1989, joined by the Castel group in 1990. According to the estate, 90 of its 250 ha are under vine, planted with 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. The wines are Château Beychevelle, Amiral de Beychevelle and Brulières de Beychevelle from a Haut-Médoc plot.

Saint-Julien is a protected designation of origin (PDO) for red wines made within a delimited area. In the 1855 classification, kept today by the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855, Beychevelle is a Quatrième Cru (fourth growth).

Why it matters to you. Brulières de Beychevelle comes from the same estate but carries the Haut-Médoc PDO, not Saint-Julien; the appellation on the label shows where the grapes grew. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.