Pedesclaux 1985

Pedesclaux is a wine estate in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux’s northern Médoc wine region, on the left bank of the Gironde estuary some 50km (30 miles) north of Bordeaux city center. The estate was classified as a fifth growth, or cinquième cru, in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855 – a status it holds to this day.

The estate lies just north of Pauillac town, on the eastern side of the appellation. Roughly one kilometer (0.6 miles) due west, over the D2 road that winds up the Médoc, lie the Château d’Armailhac, Pontet-Canet and Mouton Rothschild estates.

Pédesclaux was established in 1810 by wine broker Pierre Urbain Pédesclaux and has changed hands numerous times. The estate was bought by Lucien Jugla in 1950 (Jugla had run the property for 20 years previously) and remained in the extended Jugla family until the turn of the century.

In 2009 the estate was purchased by Franco-Swiss real estate millionaire Jacky Lorenzetti. Lorenzetti had purchased the 46-hectare (113 acre) Saint-Estèphe property Château Lilian Ladouys the year before.

Lorenzetti began a programme of renovation and acquisition of further high quality vineyard land, almost doubling the size of the estate from 26 hectares (69 acres) to 48 hectares (118 acres). In 2013, Lorenzetti acquired half of Château d’Issan, a well-known third growth, in Margaux run by Emmanuel Cruse, already general director of Lorenzetti’s Bordeaux properties.

The Château Pédesclaux estate covers 48 hectares (120 acres) and is planted primarily to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, with some Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. The vines, which are grown organically, are generally planted on a gravel over clay subsoil with an average age of 35 years, although some date back to the 1950s.

The château ages its wine for 12 months in 60 percent new French oak barrels and produces around 9,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon-predominant wine each year.

The second wine of Château Pédesclaux is a Merlot-dominant wine named Fleur de Pédesclaux, previously known as Lucien de Pédesclaux.